Clarence Page, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Chicago Tribune, spoke on media ethics at the 2003 Ralph O. Nafziger Lecture Thursday at UW-Madison.
Page discussed the credibility problems journalists face and the public opinion of the media in his speech titled, \Media Ethics is Not a Contradiction.""
""I'm a member of a misunderstood minority,"" Page said. ""I'm a journalist.""
Page said those who enter the field of journalism view it as a noble profession, but the public views the media with distrust. He cited the rise of fictionalized journalism, particularly by Jayson Blair, who submitted fabricated stories to The New York Times.
""The joy of this business is something that Blair ignored,"" Page said, stating the joy of being a journalist is meeting new people and discovering their individual stories. ""Instead, he withdrew into himself in his apartment and wrote fiction.""
Page also stressed the importance of the First Amendment, claiming no other country gives its citizens such a broad right to free speech. He cited the war in Grenada in the 1980s as an example of this point because the media were not allowed to cover it.
""[Journalists] thought the public would be outraged, but instead they had the opposite reaction.""
UW-Madison senior Mike Philipps said he agreed with Page that journalists must rise above public scrutiny to do their job.
Another student, UW-Madison junior and journalism major John Reimann said he liked how Page made the touchy topic of media ethics both clear and lighthearted, such as in talking about Rush Limbaugh's comments on ESPN.
According to Page, one of the cardinal sins as a reporter is misrepresentation of oneself in an undercover assignment. Digressing, he commented on the drastic changes in investigative journalism.
""It's getting harder and harder to get away with fakery ... Good journalists don't misrepresent themselves,"" he said.
Concluding his speech, Page gave his opinion on the recent CIA information leak in Washington, D.C. and commented on columnist Bob Novak's decision to use a controversial source in his column. The source leaked classified information that has threatened CIA operations.
""Washington, trust me, lives on leaks,"" he said.
When asked his opinion about reporters' facilitation of government information leakage, he said the idea appeals to him because it is information that the public needs to know.
