Journalistic ethics: Do they exist?

By: Hannah Pickett

Two weeks ago, the newspaper I write for published a leading front page story titled "It's an Obama Nation!" regarding President elect Obama's nomination. The article centered around my editor's political Republican-based views.

One week after the article was published, a former Winterset resident wrote a letter to the editor expressing her disgust with the article's content saying that such a biased piece of work combined with the lack of taste in the headline belonged on the opinion page, rather than being passed off as fact on the front page. In her letter, she also mentioned that she was in attendance at Grant Park in Chicago when Obama gave his speech election night.

My editor chose to use her eyewitness experience only when publishing the letter to the editor, leaving out her sentiments of disgust with the paper.

After seeing this, the woman decided to purchase an ad space to express her frustration with the paper and to print her letter to the editor-unedited. The publisher heard about it and edited her ad space. Since it was an ad, a proof was sent to her and needless to say she was very upset.

After much arguing between the publisher, the woman-who turned out to be a corporate attorney, and the paper's lawyers, the decision was made to just not run the ad at all. The publisher would only run it if he could cut all the bad stuff about the paper from it, and the woman didn't want that.

I realize that the publisher and editor have the final say on what is printed and what is not, but my question is about ethics. Newspapers are supposed to have integrity and some type of work ethic. Regardless of your political standing, where was the sense of ethics when my editor decided to cut this woman's letter to the editor to serve his own needs? Is there any type of law or punishment for editing a letter to the editor or editing the content of a paid ad space?