NBC does the right thing

Because of the huge drug scandal that has 17 TCU students more despised by the American public than Jerry Sandusky, journalists have been working swiftly to gather information and report the sting operation involving TCU and Fort Worth’s Police Departments. Because of this, I feared that the well written and powerful reporting of many would be skewed by the rushed and inaccurate. Instead of these findings, however, I have been impressed with great, ethical decisions in reporting during the past day.

I wanted to take time in this blog to applaud ethical reporting by NBC DFW, for they were the only news organization that I thought did a considerably great job in following the SPJ Code of Ethics by minimizing harm. In the article "18 Arrested in TCU Drug Bust," by Frank Heinz, they mention a student as “Jonathan Blake Jones (not to be confused with the Jonathan Jones who is on the football team and is in no way connected to this case).” This act was very small--in fact it only lasted for 23 words-- but it made a world of difference in the reputation of not only TCU athletics but of Jones (the athlete).

This is the kind of reporting I wish to emulate in the future. NBC made the extra effort to do what was ethical and not further tarnish the names of TCU students and athletes. As Boschini pointed out in a press conference earlier today, this drug incident was not an athlete problem but a TCU problem. NBC silently echoed this statement by doing all they could to prevent further assumptions about the football team, its players, and athlete-related drug usage from occurring. Also, they protected the image of the Fort Worth native. Some would have assumed it was Jonathan Jones, the athlete, because the focus of this incident has been the four athletes involved with the drug incident.