Truth in Journalism
I believe that the public has a right to know anything that journalists might know concerning public safety. For example, I was recently watching an episode of West Wing (yeah, I know) and they were debating whether or not they should tell the public about the President’s case of relapsing/remitting MS that he had not disclosed before he was elected. It was obviously a parallel to President Clinton’s scandal when he was in the White House, but it got the message across. The fact that he would conceal something so serious from not just the public but from almost his entire staff showed a lack of trust. Who knows what else he could be hiding or lying about? The fact is, in real life, no one would get elected if the public knew about that disease - even though there is a precedent of presidents with serious illnesses, such as FDR with polio. However, blatantly lying about health to the press is a serious offense as the press’s duty is to report the truth to the public so they can be informed to make decisions such as elect the next President.
