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Scam interview shabby journalism

Back in the day, I went to journalism school and had to take a course in journalism ethics. Today, “journalism ethics” is a contradiction in terms.

Item: The Spokesman-Review ran a piece Feb. 24, “Walker falls for phony Koch.” The writer spent 15  1/2 inches breathlessly describing how Ian Murphy “of a liberal online news site” hoodwinked Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker into believing he was a billionaire industrialist, then published the resulting interview.

How’s that for ethics in journalism?

The story recounted how easily Ian Murphy accomplished the impersonation. Nowhere did writer David Goldstein of McClatchy News Service mention the shoddy ethics involved in obtaining this interview. In giving this story a full column of news space, again with no reference to the ethics involved, The Spokesman implied it was OK. It wasn’t OK.

Perhaps Murphy started as an amateur blogger and never took a course in journalism ethics. But David Goldstein and the editors of the Spokesman surely did.

The purpose of the story appeared to be to make Gov. Walker look like a fool.

Didn’t succeed.

What this story succeeded in doing was showing just how low the journalism establishment routinely goes – and no one involved seems to have noticed.

Maxine Elliott Sullivan

Post Falls

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