American Academy of Political and Social Science

“ Confidence can never be established merely by preventing the illegal. Laws must by their very nature be the expression of accepted standards of conduct. Unless those standards are generally accepted, laws can be of no avail. For laws enforce the obedience of minorities only. The professions of law and of medicine will never entice the public confidence if the members of those professions organize solely to punish the lawbreaker. The physician, to be worthy of his profession, must do more than refuse to do the illegal act. ”

“ If chambers of commerce may dominate the legislature of Pennsylvania, why may not the farmers dominate the national Congress? If lawyers are to make work for each other, how are we to say that laborers shall not soldier on their jobs? Self-determination by groups there should be; but self-determination in the light of the good of all.
One aspect of group consciousness of late is the belief of each of the professions that it alone should inherit the earth. Engineers have recently claimed that engineering is the one all-inclusive industrial profession. ”

“ In all but the crassest and most obvious defaults in service standards the work of the physician must be judged by physicians and that of the lawyer, by lawyers. And so with each of the professions. The higher the skill, the greater the need for organized group effort toward maintaining a fine sense of obligations, not primarily to others in the same profession, but chiefly to the general well-being of all.
Hence it is that the ideal of all the professions is public service and not monetary gain. ”

“ There is need in the journalistic world of an organization or organizations through which the social responsibility of journalists can find expression. Here and there are state associations of newspaper men and local clubs. The business paper editors have their organizations. Is the time not ripe for an Institute of Journalists which will carry the banner of high purpose for the whole profession and stimulate the organization of functioning subsidiary or affiliated bodies in every part of the country? ”

“ As business groups and crafts struggle to put into words the ideals that shall guide their members when meeting the business temptations peculiar to each craft or industry, they, too, must turn away from mere negations to the ideal. And this ideal, as with the professions, must be the public good. These business groups, however, will not find at hand the same means for enforcing high standards of conduct that the professions have. There will usually be no selective training for the work performed, though the demand for such training is increasing. ”

“ The printed word is the single instrument of the profession we represent, and the extent to which it is shaping the thoughts and the conduct of peoples is measureless. We therefore pronounce the ethical responsibility of journalism the greatest of the professional responsibilities, and we desire to accept our responsibility, now and hereafter, to the utmost extent that is right and reasonable in our respective circumstances. ”

“ The teachers of the people must be actuated by high principles; otherwise society will suffer. Newspapers, magazines and business papers form a continuation school which affects throughout life the graduates of every other educational institution, be it common school or university. As is the press, so will be society.
Observance by journalists, then, of the highest ethical standards is an imperative social necessity. There have always been sound rules of journalistic conduct, unformulated, seldom written, that have guided the best of our newspapers and magazines. ”

“ We believe that the public has confidence in the printed word of journalism in proportion as it is able to believe in the competency of journalists and have trust in their motives. Lack of trust in our motives may arise from the suspicion that we shape our writings to suit non-social interests, or that we open our columns to propaganda, or both. ”

“ Such congresses where one may learn of the needs and points of view of others will tend to transmute group-selfishness into group-ideals of public service. The public weal is a joint product of the loyal services of the skill, knowledge and creative ability of all. Useless one group or profession without the other. ”

“ But modern business cannot go on where there is lack of confidence. The sudden stagnation of business in 1920 was due more than men are wont to believe to the breakdown of moral stamina. Business is today far flung in its relations and complex in its ramifications. The structure falls when good faith fails.
In the past few months, many business men have come to have a solemn sense of personal obligation to restore and maintain faith in the business world. For ethics is the basis for creative industry. The National Association of Credit Men has adopted a formal code of ethics. ”

“ Accordingly we adopt the following professional canons:
We will resist outside control in every phase of our practice, believing that the best interests of society require intellectual freedom in journalism. We will rise above party and other partisanship in writing and publishing, supporting parties and issues only so far as we sincerely believe them to be in the public interest. We will not permit, unless in exceptional cases, the publishing of news and editorial matter not prepared by ourselves or our staffs, believing that original matter is the best answer to the peril of propaganda. ”

“ Unless the ancient self-seeking by individuals is to become, under the modern necessity for organization, mere self-seeking by groups, codes of ethics must keep clearly in mind at all times the good of all. ”

“ We cannot agree to guarantee advertising, but we assume a definite attitude toward the advertising that we write, solicit, or print. We believe that the same canons of truth and justice should apply in advertising and circulation as we are adopting for news and editorial matter. ”

“ It is not true that a newspaper should be only as advanced in its ethical atmosphere as it conceives the average of its readers to be. No man who is not in ethical advance of the average of his community should be in the profession of journalism. ”

“ Since the public takes from the journalist so great a proportion of the evidence upon which it forms its opinions, obviously that evidence should be of high type. The writer who makes his appeal to the passions rather than to the intellect is too often invalid as a purveyor of evidence because his facts are out of perspective. ”

“ Codes of ethics are the means by which groups keep their members socially victorious over self-aggrandizement. To survive, such codes must achieve a unity not of negation but of spirit—a spirit that consecrates life to the long-time interests of all through one's efforts while making a living. ”

“ Primarily, a code is a means of internal professional discipline for each group. We must be our own judges. We must shame the violators and help reform habitually offending papers. But a code has a secondary value. ”

“ We will not make our printing facilities available for the production of advertising which we believe to be socially harmful or fraudulent in its intent. To the foregoing code we subscribe heartily as a part of our duty to society and of our belief that the salvation of the world can come only through the acceptance and practice by the people of the world of a sound and practical ethical philosophy. ”

“ We will try to observe due proportion in the display of news to the end that inconsequential matter may not seem to take precedence in social importance over news of public significance. We will in all respects in our writing and publishing endeavor to observe moderation and steadiness. Recognizing that the kaleidoscopic changes in news tend to keep the public processes of mind at a superficial level, we will try to maintain a news and an editorial policy that will be less ephemeral in its influence upon social thought. ”

“ We believe that men collectively should also follow the principles of practice that guide the ethical individual. For whatever purpose men are associated, we believe they should endeavor to make the reasonable and continuous contribution that distinguishes the ethical man. And all the agencies and instrumentalities employed by men, singly or collectively, should be based upon the best ethical practice of the time, so that the end-in-view of society may thereby be hastened. ”

“ The members of the committee have dedicated themselves to the cause of the betterment of ethical standards among the professions and in business. To this end they will keep themselves in touch with and aid when possible the attempts of all organizations everywhere to attain and maintain high standards of social conduct. With the active support of the many hundreds of loyal and active Academy members everywhere, such services are sure to bring ample returns. ”

“ With the heavy responsibility resting on journalists, a responsibility of supplying mental food and guidance to millions, a responsibility of teaching the entire people, can journalists afford to do less than bind the whole craft together for the erection and maintenance of high standards? ”

“ Liberty of the press is, by constitution, statute, and custom, greater in the United States than anywhere else in the world. This liberty exists for our press so that the liberty of the whole people may thereby be guarded. ”

“ It enables a profession to justify itself to the public. House-cleaning cannot go on without some evidence of it coming to public knowledge. Then will ensue confidence; esteem will replace the distrust that may now exist. ”

“ Codes alone—mere expressions of sound standards of practice—will do some good, but to be of full value they must be accompanied by machinery for their enforcement and punishment for their violation. The medical profession enforces its codes through the county medical societies ”

“ We have been prone to forget that the same disease has long been chronic among some members of the legal profession. We have scolded the wage earners for standing together when many physicians have long practised all the arts of mutual protection. ”

“ It so happens that at times the liberty of the press is exercised as license to infringe upon the rights of groups and of individuals: because custom and law have brought about certain immunities, it happens that in haste or zeal or malice or indifference, persons are unjustly dealt by. ”

“ If new evidence forces a change of opinion, we will be as free in the acknowledgment of the new opinion as in the utterance of the old. We will promote a similar attitude in others toward truth, not asking or permitting employes to write things which as sincere journalists we would not ourselves write.
II. Care; Competency; Thoroughness
Inaccuracy in journalism is commonly due more to lack of mental equipment than to wilfulness of attitude. The ill-equipped man cannot be more competent as a journalist than he can as a doctor or engineer. ”

“ We will interpret accuracy not merely as the absence of actual misstatement, but as the presence of whatever is necessary to prevent the reader from making a false deduction. In an ethical attitude toward truth, we will be open at all times to conviction, for the sincere journalist, while fearless and firm, will never be stubborn ”

“ We dispute the maxim sometimes heard that a newspaper should follow its constituency in public morals and policy rather than try to lead it. We do not expect to be so far ahead of our time that our policies will be impractical ”

“ We recognize an instinct in every good man that his utterances and his deeds should make a reasonable and continuous contribution toward this ultimate state, in the possibility of which we reiterate our belief, however remote it may now seem. ”

“ The manufacturer sells to distant unknown customers through advertising. Even contracts to buy and to sell, in these days of the telephone, are largely by word of mouth. Selling prices must now be announced before goods are produced. ”

“ We will deal by all persons alike so far as is humanly possible, not varying from the procedure of any part of this code because of the wealth, influence, or personal situation of the persons concerned, except as hereinafter provided. It shall be one of our canons that mercy and kindliness are legitimate considerations in any phase of journalism ”