Ethics and Democracy

Ethics, journalism and the democratic process in an increasingly polarized world.

Guest Column: Journalists’ Obligation to Report — and Re-Report — the Facts About the Election

The truth is that voting in this country is relatively safe and secure. The results are reliable. Journalists need to defend the mechanics of democracy by also reporting the facts about the actual soundness of the overall system, not the corrosive conspiracy theories emanating from candidates and their social feeds.       

Person with long curly hair inserts ballot into ballot box in a parking lot

Received Hacked Info? Now What? Five Takeaways About How to Ethically Navigate Reporting of Hacked Materials

Source scrutiny, foreign intervention, audience transparency and more in our takeaways from our September event with Semafor's Ben Smith, Columbia Journalism Review's Sewell Chan, and Kathleen Carroll, former executive editor of the Associated Press.

Moderator Stephen Adler with three panelists onstage.

Was It Unethical Not to Cover Biden’s Apparent Decline?

Story selection isn’t covered prominently in most newsroom ethics codes, but what we do or don’t choose to publish is a matter of journalistic ethics as much as anything else. With the publication of Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, we are re-posting Director Stephen J. Adler’s 2024 article on the ethical implications of the media’s failure to cover Biden’s decline when it first became apparent. Beyond criticizing the press, Adler provides useful guidelines for journalists going forward.

Panel Tackles Challenges Of Covering Elections Amid Disinformation

A group of seasoned politics journalists and a leading press critic kicked off the first of two panels to launch the Ethics & Journalism Initiative at NYU's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute on Nov. 29. Moderated by EJI director Stephen J. Adler, the panel discussed how to cover politics ethically and robustly in an age of polarization and disinformation. You'll find the EJI Takeaways from the panel and a link to a video in this post.