US news anchor direct action July 2, 2007
Posted by martincloake in ethics, journalism.trackback
Has everyone seen the Mika Brzezinski footage from the American news show Morning Joe in which she repeatedly refuses to read a scripted news lead on Paris Hilton, saying it wasn’t news on a day when important Iraq news was breaking. It’s become a bit of a YouTube phenomenon, but it raises some very interesting questions. What do people think? Are there lessons for us? Would some people argue that Mika has ‘compromised her impartiality’ by expressing the opinion she has?
It would be good to get some discussion going on this – although it’s possible many of the people who say they want to discuss professional issues are too busy discussing the issues they think we shouldn’t be discussing to, er, discuss them. But we live in hope.
Mika rocks. I don’t think that it undermines her impartiality. She is not saying she hates Paris Hilton or opposes the Iraq War (although some might argues that her actions suggest that!) she is making an editorial judgement (albiet one that clashes with her editors), which is what you are paid to do. I would see it as her standing up for quality journalism, her editors might see it as being unprofessional. It’s great telly though.