When reading news, I never actually considered whether or not it was factually correct. I've never really thought about whether what I was reading was true, because I've always thought why write about it if it isn't true? Why write a story on something that never really happened? But clearly people do that.
My reaction to the first article was a mixture of anger and confusion. The details throughout this article just didn't seem to add up, and were hard to take seriously. Like where the article says, "she noted that Jimmy aspired to be a heroin dealer when he grew up", it just didn't sound right. Although, there are lots of crazy people out there, would an eight year old boy even know what it means to deal heroin? After reading the second article, I became even more mad because why would they bash Stephen Harper for being "wrong" about a decision that he never even made. The reporter who wrote this article was fired for all the right reasons. She came up with a story that was not even true, to damage the reputation of a man.
The statement "most liars make up things for the simple reason that they don't have the talent or the ability to get the story any other way" is something I really had to think about. At first, I would have said not all liars I like that, and although I still believe that to be somewhat true, I do think that journalists who make up things so that they can have a story are not as talented as those who do not feel the need to lie. I believe they have talent, however, are just too lazy to use it. They do not want to put forth the effort in having to dig deeper into stories to get the necessary facts and details, so they just come up with their own facts, which is not right.
I think that colleges and universities should try and teach journalism students about the responsibilities and pressures that come along with the job, however, it is not their job to teach them the difference between true and false, or right and wrong. I do not think universities nor colleges should be the ones who are reliable if their students choose to not honour the codes of being a journalist.
I think that a newspaper ombudsman does help because it allows the readers to give their thoughts and opinions. If readers do not agree with stories that were published, with a newspaper ombudsman, they have the opportunity to give their opinions. I think that this is a big help because an ombudsman would help the newspaper by improving it and making sure the readers are pleased with the stories.
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