Thus, the media hunted for items, building a case against Hatfill, in essence creating news rather than reporting it. Better balanced could have been easily provided by giving Hatfill and the FBI investigators more voice.
In order to prevent this from happening again, guidelines could be put into place. The first guideline would be to conduct an independent investigation into all details, including those gleaned from other news outlets. It should not be assumed that other news outlets are providing coverage of the highest integrity. Indeed, this guideline flows from the code of ethics: "expose unethical practices of journalists and news media."
Another guideline that could be implemented is that the outlet should not "create" news by digging up items of conjecture regarding the subject, but should rather report the findings of official investigations. In this case, this would involve reporting the FBI's official announcements on the issue.
If I was the editor of the paper, I would run the story. However, I would have more fully vetted the story and provided more balance to the coverage. That the FBI was investigating Hatfill was fact, but the coverage resulted in a number of distortions. I would like not have reported on Hatfill's name until it was officially confirmed by the...
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