On Media Honesty: My Nomination

Idea Grove is already working on its President’s Day post (kudos to Scott for planning ahead) to honor the top 10 Moments in Public Honesty for 2005-2006.

They have asked for nominations of those in politicians and others who have exhibited refreshing candor in their interactions with the public. The cador had to occur between February 2005 and February 2006.

My nomination is for Derek Rose, a reporter for the New York Daily News, who blogged this starkly honest account after he incorrectly reported, with the rest of the media, on the Sago Mine tragedy.

Here are some excerpts from his blog post (be sure you check out his comments, he really opened himself up for criticism and also some goodwill by the public):

Looking back, I think we all did get caught up in the euphoria of the celebration, as Alexa told me. Perhaps we just put aside our natural skepticism for a bit…But put aside journalism for a second … what kind of human beings would we be if we didn’t get overjoyed about the rescue of a dozen miners?

(As a side note: I have an anti-authoritarian streak a mile long. I don’t believe in waiting until “the authorities,” give my stories some magic stamp of approval by saying “this story has been Officially Confirmed.” That just makes the media another government cog. As we saw during Katrina, the authorities can be just as wrong as anyone else. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a conspiracy theorist, and often government officials can be more neutral and knowledgeable than others. But they’re all only human, with their own motives, just like everyone else).

To nominate someone that you think deserves an award for public honesty, post a comment for Idea Grove here.