Approximately a week ago, Buzzfeed made headlines for publishing a 35-page dossier which made various claims of President-Elect Donald Trump's deep ties to Russia. The document also propagated salacious details of Trump's personal life that manifested in the "GoldenShowerGate" hashtag.
In any other situation, the revelation of such information would be earth shattering. But there was one problem. Buzzfeed owner and CEO admitted in the body of the article that all the information inside the dossier were "unverified". The documents in their current form contain various errors and were debunked rather quickly. The only hint at a source in the dossier are the words "Confidential/ Sensitive Source" on the top of every page. Absolutely nothing on the record from a verifiable source. Yet Buzzfeed opted to publish the article anyway.
The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) maintain a standard code of ethics to maintain journalistic integrity. At its core, journalists are meant to cover facts and report the truth as is, without a spin. The SPJ outright states that journalists must "take responsibility for the accuracy of their work. Verify information before releasing it. Use original sources whenever possible." It also urges to "Identify sources clearly" and to "avoid undercover or other surreptitious methods of gathering information." As it stands, and Buzzfeed still has not released its source, Buzzfeed has broken several core tenets of the journalistic code of ethics.
When the story broke, no other major outlets (barring CNN) picked up the story. The dossier made its way to other stations, but their ethics stood tall despite the potential of the scoop. The editor of the NY Times famously stated, "we do not publish what we cannot stand by". So why did Buzzfeed opt to do so? Buzzfeed and other news organizations have made their disdain for the President-Elect very apparent.
As was clear from the recent election cycle, the current media lives and dies by the headline. Try to think about the news you saw this morning on sites like Twitter, CNN or Reddit. Odds are, you likely saw the headline and that's all you needed to know. Buzzfeed played off this phenomenon for "GoldenShowerGate" to make the waves on social media.
The publishing of unsubstantiated information creates an ethical precedent which is absolutely terrifying. If news sources are not held to the standard of reporting the truth, any story can be crafted and treated as fact. This is what constitutes fake news, news that is no longer based in fact. Standardized slander is not what constitutes journalism.
I understand that Buzzfeed wants to hold the President-Elect accountable.
But next time, do it with real information. Not baseless, unsubstantiated claims to push an agenda.
