The importance of ethical journalism: a story about Mr. Yee

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You may have heard of the journalism class at Eagle Rock High from a friend, teacher, or just clicked on a link online to see what it’s about. Either way, you stumbled across this article about why we do our best to preserve journalistic integrity here at the Eagle’s Scream.

I was talking to my biology teacher, Mr. Yee, about journalistic integrity, and he brought up his own personal story of being misrepresented in the media. It started when I mentioned I was in journalism while we were chatting during class, and I asked if he would be willing to at some point have an article written about him for the Eagle’s Scream. His response was immediate, saying that he’ll never voluntarily be a part of a journalism project ever again (yet here we are…). After reading other teacher profiles on the Eagle’s Scream website, he hesitantly agreed, but making it clear that he’ll only agree if he can have full control on what does and does not get published.

It all started in 1998, when a journalist from a major newspaper came into Manual Arts High School in South LA, where he met Mr. Yee to discuss textbooks and student skill level in his 10th grade biology class. He was asked a myriad of good questions, and he felt his answers represented his school and his students. However, a couple weeks later, Mr. Yee received a call from the school principal to get clarification on the news article, titled, “Why Our Schools Are Failing.”

As he read the article, Mr. Yee’s face twisted from confusion to pure disbelief, as the journalist had cut out many responses about the school’s progress and achievements, and took quotes out of context, citing the students at Manual Arts as low achieving and reading well below their grade level. The article claimed that the school district was wasting money because the students’ reading levels weren’t aligned with the textbooks.  Mr. Yee said that he was giving the students a summary of the material that was more in-tune with their level of understanding. From then on, Mr. Yee decided to remove himself from the world of journalism permanently (until this article!).

While it’s not morally right to take quotes out-of-context without checking first with the interviewee, it is important to not bend completely to the demands of the interviewee. If the interviewers had just written down in their article what Mr. Yee had said about his experiences teaching, the article would have lost its original intent to explain problems with the California public education system. Journalism is about reporting on what’s going on in the world, and by limiting to one point of view, there can be missing context. It’s important that journalists disclose the purpose of their stories to interviewees so that they can make an informed decision about whether to participate.

There are also forms of journalism that are meant to be satire. Here at the Eagle’s Scream, we have the Shallot, a whole corner of the website that showcases our funniest and (obviously) satirical articles. With large-scale edits from every single teacher and interviewee from every satire article, many parts of the Shallot and your favorite silly journalism pieces from anywhere might not have existed at all. This definitely doesn’t mean that a journalist shouldn’t get clearance from the interviewees, but a situation where the interviewees are equally as controlling in a story, especially a satirical one, could very likely cross the thin line between satire and ruining someone’s reputation. It’s always important to be aware of power dynamics, because a journalist criticizing a random person is way worse than criticizing some important political figure or leader.

Journalism is about telling a story about what’s going on in the world, and to project the world’s truth in its rawest form. Every journalist must be ready to explore new ideas and jump at new possibilities, but also keep the original intent in mind. If you find yourself reading this article, then Mr. Yee has approved this being published (thank you Mr. Yee!). Because here at the Eagle’s Scream, we go through great lengths to preserve journalistic integrity, because to us journalism isn’t for the money or fame, but to spread truth.