Two Visions of Responsibility: How National Commissions Contributed to Jornalism Ethics, 1963–1975

Abstract

The early 1970s witnessed significant developments in journalism ethics as news organizations revised or adopted codes of conduct, appointed ombudsmen, formed news councils, and took the first steps toward integrating newsrooms. Although some scholars have argued that this emphasis on ethics was a result of the Hutchins Commission or Watergate, this monograph suggests an additional factor: three national commissions that criticized the news media between 1964 and 1970. The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, and the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence accused journalists of prejudice, sensationalism, and even inciting violence. The commissions have been mostly ignored in regard to journalism ethics, and few scholars if any have attempted to tie together the impact of all three. This monograph presents a history of ideas — notions about journalists' responsibilities — to shed new light on how journalism ethics developed in the twentieth century. Watergate highlighted issues like the use of anonymous sources, but it did not specifically suggest what journalists should do. The three commissions did. They challenged journalists to fundamentally rethink their work and the purpose of it. From a process of challenge and response, an expanded sense of media responsibility arose. This monograph offers an analytical framework of freedom and responsibility to help explain the impact these commissions had on the practice and standards of journalism in the 1960s, 1970s, and beyond.