Old news

Let’s revive a 5-month-old non-controversy!

I must be SPJ’s worst ethics chair ever.

Sometime this month, I might be censured by something called the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication’s Elected Standing Committee on Professional Freedom and Responsibility.

No, I’ve never heard of them, either.

I also haven’t heard from them. This (elected and standing) committee is considering a resolution that officially hates a program I created. That would be SIN, an alternative to those butt-puckering parody issues some student newspapers do.

I learned about the resolution, which you can read below, from an SPJ Ethics Committee member who also hates SIN. About half of them do.

“No one is going to let this happen again on a national level,” Dan Axelrod says. “It’s an embarrassment.”

Some don’t like me very much, either.

“He has gone from firebrand to arsonist,” Chandra Bozelko says. “I’m finding it very hard to see how he is trying to protect the organization.”

Those quotes come from a website called Breaker. You can’t read the article without a subscription, but here’s how it describes SIN…

Create fake news to highlight the reputational damage that can be caused by legitimately fake news, all the while tarnishing the very code that acts as the backbone of ethical journalism.

I wrote how SIN really works during April’s SPJ Ethics Week, and how some nervous journalists never read the instructions. Nine former SPJ leaders asked in an open letter to SPJ’s board of directors: “Have you considered how it will affect SPJ’s reputation?”

Of course, SIN didn’t affect SPJ’s reputation at all. Three student newspapers published SIN issues, and no one complained on any of their campuses. SPJ survived SIN.

Now, five months later, an AEJMC (elected and standing) committee is considering a resolution to “go on record opposing any efforts to intentionally produce and distribute false or misleading content.”

As one Ethics Committee member put it…

Regardless of the merits of the contest, this is the frickin’ news business. That was 14,000 news cycles ago. Is AEJMC gonna expound on the menace of yellow journalism next? Remember the Maine!

The resolution is funny for five other reasons…

• Who cares? Journalism organizations love passing resolutions no one reads.
• As I’ve pointed out before because I savor the irony, SIN was created in 2013 with an SPJ Foundation grant. No one said anything until this year.
• The very top of SPJ’s Code of Ethics says, “Verify information before releasing it. Use original sources whenever possible.” Even AEJMC’s Code of Ethics says, “We inform subjects of our status as researchers.” Yet no one with the (elected and standing) committee has contacted me before resolving that SIN sucks.
• The resolution ends with the (elected and standing) committee wanting to “forge a better relationship with the SPJ Ethics Committee.” Does AEJMC need a resolution to email me?
• While my time as SPJ ethics chair ends during MediaFest, I’ve decided to do SIN again during Ethics Week 2026 – and I’ll use this resolution and all the hyperbolic quotes as marketing materials.

See you in April!

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Resolution: Ethical Journalism in All Situations

            Whereas, through ethical principles including accuracy, fairness, transparency and independence, journalism is a distinct form of communication, and journalists earn public trust; and

            Whereas, when government officials dismiss factual reporting, restrict access to information or retaliate against journalists who uncover uncomfortable truths, they undermine the foundations of our democracy; and

            Whereas, as part of their Professional Freedom and Responsibility, AEJMC members constantly keep a watchful eye on conduct that violates ethical principles, either on the part of those in government or those in college or professional news media; and  

            Whereas, in 2025, the Society of Professional Journalists Ethics Committee sponsored a SIN (Spread Immoral News) Issue Contest where college news outlets were encouraged to publish an edition with news that was made up entirely along with the SPJ Code of Ethics and a letter from the editor explaining what they were doing; and

            Whereas, such an activity, while meant to engage and educate young journalists and readers, could serve to exacerbate an already increasing problem of public misunderstanding of ethics and their role in journalism; and

            Whereas, ethics as well as media criticism and accountability represent two of the five core areas of Professional Freedom and Responsibility in AEJMC. 

            Now, therefore, be it resolved that AEJMC and its membership go on record opposing any efforts to intentionally produce and distribute false or misleading content, even if designed to teach ethics; and

            Be it further resolved that as the nation’s largest organization of college journalism and mass communication educators, AEJMC urge its members in their teaching, research and service to use every opportunity to reinforce and advocate for the importance of always operating with the highest of ethical standards; and

            Finally, be it resolved that AEJMC through its Media Ethics Division and the Elected Standing Committee on Professional Freedom and Responsibility forge a better relationship with the SPJ Ethics Committee to further develop strategies to engage students in promoting ethical journalism.