to cover up Riley

to cover up Riley

Nathaniel Searl

WednesdayJan 17 at 1:58am

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As an honest reporter for the Town Times, I am required to give facts and tell the story with as little bias as possible. While I would like to cover for my friend Riley in this scenario, I don’t believe that it is possible to do so without going against the SPJ’s code of ethics. Trying to fabricate a story in which the school does not owe the state 50,000 dollars would involve me lying to cover up Riley and the school, and if I know the truth than this is blatantly wrong. I would also be displaying a bias towards Riley and the school given the effort to cover up for them. In my story I would present the facts as they are, including that the school took 50,000 dollars from the state to fund a program that didn’t exist, and in turn used it to pay off general expenses.

I don’t think I would interview Riley in this scenario. As far as I’m concerned, it’s not his fault that the school chose to take this money and use it in the way that they did, and it shouldn’t affect whether his auto club continues. I also don’t believe Riley would be in any way a part of this outside of the fact that he works for the school, unless he was directly involved with the fraud, in which case that is a different story. I think that Riley would understand my point of view, and my need to disclose the proper information regarding the story. I believe that this is the best way to go forward with the story in an unbiased way and attempt not upset Riley.

Source:

Society of Professional Journalists. (2014). SPJ code of ethics. Retrieved from http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp