Questionable Legality

What is broken in the newsroom? It is an interesting question to ask and there are a variety of answers that can be given. Season 5 of The Wire offers a unique perspective of what goes on behind the scenes of the workings of a newspaper.

You see much of the real world: politics, money and the legal and ethical issues that come with being a journalist. Each journalist has to deal with the buy-out offers and the possibility of losing their jobs while still striving to make the deadline and holding true to the mission of the Baltimore Sun.

The show has one journalist turning in stories to the editor that are questionable. With no pictures or other forms of solid proof to back up the story, an editor questions the journalist. However, because one of the higher ups liked the story so much, despite the lack of actual facts, the matter is dropped.

This reporter seems to have trouble making deadlines and writing something worthwhile to turn in for the Baltimore Sun to print. Fabrications of stories as it is displayed in the show illustrates how easy it can be to get pulled under the stress of the job and give in to means you might otherwise not use.

More ethical issues can be seen in the detectives that invent their own serial killer in order to get funds to work another case. They take bodies of homeless men and exaggerate their deaths to look like murder, making people believe that they have a serious criminal on their hands to deal with. Meanwhile, the real criminals are being ignored.

Seeing things like this on a show can bring into question the legitimacy of real-life papers and their reporters. However, that does not mean you have to question everything that you read. This show points out some crucial pieces of information that you can look for as an avid news follower that can allow you to determine for yourself if the news you are being given is factual or not.

The simple fact that the reporter had no pictures of a child in a wheelchair can raise a lot of eyebrows. These days, with all of the technology out there, it would be difficult to believe that a reporter did not have a digital camera or a camera on a cell phone to take a picture. At the very least he could have done was to run and purchase a disposable, which he should have as backup in his bag at any rate.

Next you have absolutely nothing on the kid. No one, despite extensive research in various departments and sources, has ever heard of the kid. If this does not scream out skeptical then I don’t know what would. Someone, somewhere, should be able to get some piece of information pertaining to a kid in a wheelchair at opening day of a baseball game.

The Wire shows that morals and common values are often hard to come by in certain areas. Not getting what we want and not being able to deal with the stress and time constraints have people buckling and looking for short cuts that often lead to bigger problems than what they had to start with, involving more people than they first may have thought.