Often, people come across bad journalism. It comes in numerous forms. Sometimes it is in the form of textbooks, television, and radio broadcasts. These stories are biased and untruthful. Often, lies are added to support the journalist's opinion. Bad journalism is heavily opinionated and gives incorrect perceptions of things.
One of the traits of good journalism is the ability to state the facts directly without adding one's opinion. In "Ten Ethical Principles for College Journalists", the second principle instructs the young journalists to tell the truth. "Objective truth- like flawless beauty- is an illusive goal. Nonetheless, just as human beings pursue many aims that can never be fully achieved. It remains a worthy endeavor for journalists to commit themselves to trying to tell the truth." (Ten Ethical Principles) Many times journalists just don't find the truth good enough for their story. Instead, they try to twist the truth until it says what they want it to say and agrees with what they believe.
Portrait of Edgar Allen Poe (Maryland attorney gen...
English: Edgar Allen Poe, poet and writer, commemo...
English: Edgar Allan Poe Cottage, The BronxIn a number of television commercials, they show images of naked, starving children in Africa and Asia. What many people fail to notice is that it's been the same child for 10 years at the least. One would think the child had grown up or died from malnutrition by now. But the foundations that do these commercials will not tell you that a very little amount of the money donated actually goes to the children.
Edgar Allen Poe once summed up the idea of sensationalism in journalism in once of his short stories, Mystery of Marie Roget. "We should bare in mind that, in general, it is the object of our news-papers [This was written before the age of electronic journalism] rather to create a sensation - to make a point - than to further the cause...