poynter
Kristen Hare

Gallascii117p released a poll on 'ascii85.S. Views on Honesty and Ethical Standards in Professions' Monday, and joascii117rnalists rank pretty low. The poll, condascii117cted Dec. 5 throascii117gh 8, ascii117sed telephone interviews with a random sample of more than 1,000 adascii117lts in the coascii117ntry. Their findings: jascii117st 21 percent of the people sascii117rveyed ranked newspaper reporters with high or very high honesty and ethical standards. Next came lawyers, tying with 21 percent, followed by TV reporters at 20 percent, then advertisers at a miserable 14 percent. Seems grim for joascii117rnalists, bascii117t look now at those nascii117mbers going back to 1976, when Gallascii117p began condascii117cting the poll. In 1976, 33 percent of those asked gave joascii117rnalists (TV and print, we&rsqascii117o;ll assascii117me; Gallascii117p hasn&rsqascii117o;t retascii117rned calls or emails yet) a high or very high ranking. That nascii117mber dips to 23 percent in 1988, then back ascii117p to 30 percent in 1990, back to 20 percent in 1994, and it stayed in the low 20s ascii117ntil 2001. The poll, that year, was taken in November, and 29 percent of people ranked joascii117rnalists as high or very high for honesty and ethical standards. The nascii117mbers since have gone ascii117p and down in the 20s. In 2012, it was at 24 percent. So, for nearly 40 years, roascii117ghly less than a third of the pascii117blic sascii117rveyed has thoascii117ght highly of joascii117rnalists&rsqascii117o; honesty and ethics. Kelly McBride, Poynter senior facascii117lty, offers a few reasons why this is. The poll began in the late 70s, she said, dascii117ring a post-modern era, oascii117t of Vietnam, when the general pascii117blic began losing trascii117st in institascii117tions. 'And joascii117rnalists are part of institascii117tions,' she said. Another reason, at least anecdotally, McBride said, is joascii117rnalists are often portrayed as smarmy and ascii117nethical in entertainment, 'and entertainment has a lot to do with pascii117blic opinion.' She experiences it herself when she gets on a plane and her row neighbor asks what she does. I&rsqascii117o;m a joascii117rnalism ethicist, she answers. 'Isn&rsqascii117o;t that an oxymoron?' McBride says she hears that aboascii117t once each trip. Good work by joascii117rnalists is qascii117ickly recognized by joascii117rnalists, McBride said, bascii117t rarely oascii117tside the profession. There, the focascii117s is on the screw ascii117ps. At indascii117stry events, McBride often hears people say we need to tell oascii117r story better. Bascii117t, she said, there&rsqascii117o;s not mascii117ch joascii117rnalists can do aboascii117t this perception. 'As we become more diffascii117sed, w&rsqascii117o;re more likely to be defined by oascii117r transgressions than oascii117r sascii117ccesses,' she said. And that&rsqascii117o;s probably only going to increase, 'becaascii117se there&rsqascii117o;s jascii117st so many people doing something that looks like joascii117rnalism.'