Should Journalists Publish False Stories?

Deliberately planting false or misleading stories with the public in an attempt to solve a crime is a questionable tactic that should be used rarely if ever, law enforcement and media experts said Wednesday November 7. An article written by Robert Moore, a journalist from the Coloradoan, questions the ethics of law enforcement, as well as, journalists. A request for a new trial in a Fort Collins, Colorado, murder case is raising a variety of ethics issues, including a controversy about whether it's proper for police to plant false or misleading stories in the press in order to further an investigation. The Fort Collins Coloradoan reports that some law enforcement officials and media experts planted a false story in the local news paper implying that progress was being made in a murder case, when in actuality the case was stalled. The Coloradoan claims that the fake article that was planted in the local news paper, was aimed at Tim Masters. Tim Masters was the prime suspect, who was later convicted and imprisoned for murdering Peggy Hettrick in 1988.


Fort Collins police Lt. Deryle O'Dell wrote a Jan. 8, 1988, memo to his superiors saying investigators had "exhausted all of the leads" in the Hettrick slaying. He requested approval from Glasscock for several new steps, including planting a story that would say police had made significant inroads in the investigation. Under a heading titled "F.B.I behavior science recommendations," O'Dell's memo outlined a plan that called for "preparing our own newspaper articles" and "making sure the suspect is aware of newspaper articles." To make sure Masters saw the story, the plan called for police to deliver the Coloradoan to his home for a month leading up to the Feb. 11, 1988, anniversary of Hettrick's slaying. The plan also called for "anonymously placing and mailing the newspaper articles on the suspect's vehicle/residence." The plan called for several days of round-the-clock surveillance of Masters as the story came out to see if he did anything incriminating, such as visiting the murder scene or Hettrick's grave. If the plan didn't work, "we would essentially close the books on the case," O'Dell wrote.

According to the memos, authorities:
 Fed a local reporter phony information that police were closing in on a suspect
 Delivered newspapers carrying the fake story to Masters' trailer
 Had one of Masters' friends deliver him a copy of his mother's obituary

The false story was written by Cara Neth, who was working her first newspaper job a few months after graduating from Colorado State University. She said she was naïve at the time, but other, more experienced reporters suspected something fishy after her story was published.


The Fort Collins police tactics in 1988 raise troubling questions for both investigators and journalists, said Bob Steele, an ethicist at the Poynter Institute, a Florida-based journalism education program. "It is exceptionally rare to have a law enforcement agency or government agency try to plant a patently false story in order to then generate a specific action, in this case on the part of a crime suspect," Steele said. "It can corrupt and corrode the essential trust that must exist between law enforcement and journalism, even while there are different values and different purposes for the professionals involved.” Steele said the 1988 Coloradoan story is an example of what can happen when reporters and editors don't approach stories skeptically.

I feel that it is unethical for law enforcement to plant false news stories in newspapers no matter the circumstances. False stories can corrupt the essential trust that exists between the reader and journalists. According to the SPJ code of ethics, Journalists should be honest, fair and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information. They should also test the accuracy of information from all sources and exercise care to avoid inadvertent error. Deliberate distortion is never permissible. Therefore, I feel that Cara Neth was being unethical and naïve by publishing a false article. By publishing a fake article, she was not being honest or fair. Neth should have questioned her sources motives. Journalists are supposed to seek the truth, and publish the facts.

Washington Insiders Weigh in on Shield Legislation

In this article written by Leann Frola it addresses the issue of the establishment of a shield law for protection of journalist and their sources in regards to federal cases. The Washington Post stated that the Senate Judiciary Committee has postponed consideration of the shield legislation after the Justice Department raised objections. In order for there to be a provision of the bill the department of justice would have to convince the judge that it would be a leak in national security information that would hurt the government more than helping the public. ABC's Sam Donaldson said, "balancing national security and the publics right to know would be tricky. Also another problem with the bill would be deciding who would be protected by it. In the past numerous journalists have been jailed for disclosing their sources. On Thursday, a federal judge sentenced San Francisco Chronicle reporters Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada to 18 months in jail. The reporters had refused to reveal who leaked to them secret grand jury testimony alleging steroid abuse by top athletes. News analyst Robert Cokie said, "Confidential sources are crucial for reporting sensitive stories that may put a source's career at risk."





I feel that there should be a shield law when it comes to sources of federal cases. I am looking out for the best interest of the source. If the sources got leaked in high profile cases it would not only put these peoples careers at risk but possibly their lives as well. Yes, it is the journalists job to state their sources so that the public can see that they are credible. However, I feel that when it comes to jeopardizing a persons life all for the sake of a source, I do not feel that it is necessary and that journalists should be able to provide information about the source with out leaking the name in cases such as these.