Journalistic Integrity: An Alienating Myth

Sarah Dajani ’26

Contributing Writer

We spend more time talking about journalistic integrity than we spend talking about what the journalists are reporting on. This is the case regarding the genocide in Gaza, the invasion of Venzuela and the kidnapping of its president and the heartbreaking loss of Nicky Green ’29. 

Contrary to textbook definition, journalism does not solely serve the distribution of “accurate” news. Journalism is where the elites spread propaganda, governments manufacture consent and writers advocate for justice. I can name the New York Times’s “AFTEREFFECTS: SEARCH FOR WEAPONS; U.S. Experts Find Radioactive Material in Iraq,” “What We Know About Maduro’s Capture and the Fallout” and “Harvey Weinstein Paid Off Sexual Harassment Accusers for Decades,” respectively as examples of the above. In loss of life, readers await a just title and an honoring of their dead.

I am writing this opinion in light of the backlash the Tripod received for its piece “Trinity First-Year Nicky Green ’29 Found Dead in Jones Hall.” An opinion I developed over decades of dehumanizing Western reporting on where I am from and hundreds of scholarly works on the influence of the media. 

The disgraceful reporting that has been done on Palestine by “renowned” papers like The New York Times, especially during the genocide in Gaza, gave rise to a critical lens in which we examine laws, like journalistic integrity. Mohammed Al Kurd, in his Perfect Victims, takes an “extreme” stance against “Journalistic Integrity.” Talking about Shireen Abu Akleh, one of the first Palestinian journalists to be targeted by Israel. He says “Shireen Abu Akleh—even in a press vest and a helmet—was not a neutral bystander…She was one of us, through and through. She rejoiced when we rejoiced and mourned when we mourned. So why distance her from the rest of her people?” He adds “In Jenin, one woman marching behind Shireen’s casket testified to filming journalists, “[Shireen] was in the rubble looking for martyrs … in Jenin camp during the [2002 Israeli] invasion…. She helped me look for my children.” Shireen was no less of a journalist because of her humanity. She served her people. Her voice resonated in every Palestinian home and throughout the Arab world. Her funeral was described by her colleagues as the “longest funeral in recent Palestinian history … 40 [kilometers] of love. ” To be a good journalist is to be a human first and to approach journalistic standards with a critical lens. Here in the West, we are yet to come to terms with the reality of cherished ideals like human rights and journalistic integrity; their conception and their design as a tool of domination. These tools are no longer serving their masters.

Examining journalistic integrity with a critical lens is not a call for a lower standard. In fact, it is a call for the exact opposite: we as writers need to find a way to work with the circumstances of our world. Opinions and beliefs do not form in a vacuum nor does your humanity take away from your professionalism. So tell people what you believe and how you came to believe it. Successful journalists are those who speak to their community members with the same empathy they would appreciate themselves. If your “journalistic integrity” alienates you from those around you, if you are not identified as one of the people you seek to write about, if you do not acknowledge your positionality, you are probably doing journalism wrong. 

Gaza’s journalists are a leading example of integrity and the reporting we need. The violations across the strip are so widespread that every person held up their camera. All the journalists were subject to the same bombardment, starvation and displacement, if not targeted by Israeli airstrikes and gunshots. These conditions did not stop Gaza’s journalists from reporting. They were reporting because of and in spite of their conditions. An element of their authenticity and integrity is showing the conditions they were reporting from. They were not reporting from safety or comfort. And that matters. It’s time journalists are not awarded for their “objectivity,” but for the humanity they show in adversaries. 
The rules around retracting articles and reporting on “Breaking News” is not the first time the Tripod has come under scrutiny. The Tripod, in prior years, received immense backlash for publishing several anonymous pieces — mostly surrounding Palestine. Of course, I am of the opinion that a writer should own up to their writing, if not proudly claim it, but not in a country where writers are kidnapped off their streets precisely for their opinion. So, while excluding anonymous pieces serves “journalistic integrity,” it silences a large section of residents whose status in the United States is vulnerable. Journalistic integrity extends beyond a set of rules we follow. We are human before journalists. Instead of sticking to a set of cold-rigid rules, we should think about what our purpose is, who we are trying to serve and how our work affects them. You are not less of a journalist for helping a mother look for her child under the rubble. You are a great one.