Description: Offering a hard-hitting critique of traditional assumptions about the way journalists should go about the business of obtaining the news, Jeremy Iggers challenges the dogmas that have shaped journalism for the last 100 years -- the dogmas of objectivity, neutrality, and delivery of information. In Good News, Bad News: Public Journalism Ethics and Public Interest, Iggers demonstrates that journalism's institutionalized ethics neither safeguard nor promote responsible reporting. He briefly examines the history and development of codes of ethics before offering an in-depth analysis of the state of journalistic conduct today. Citing such infamous cases as Janet Cooke's "Jimmy's World" story (for which a Pulitzer was first awarded then revoked) and Kurt Lohbeck's false and distorted reports from Afghanistan, Iggers explains why those incidents have contributed to the disintegrating credibility of the American press.

The final chapters sketch out a new theory of ethics for journalism based on a more complete understanding of the role of the news media in society. Iggers argues that only by adopting such values as access to information, commitment to diversity, and an emphasis on context and explanation will journalists fulfill their social responsibility. Iggers then discusses the challenges of putting these values into practice and concludes with treatment of the public journalism movement, which acknowledges the responsibility of journalism in public life.

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