Due Diligence and the News: Searching for a Moral Compass in the Digital Age

by Stanley E. Flink, Bruce Fraser (Foreword)

Reporter, editor and lecturer Stanley Flink knows the news business. He has worked as a journalist and editor for many years, in many different venues and platforms. Flink knows, as we all should, that democracy has no life without truth. In Due Diligence and the News , Stan reviews, succinctly and gracefully, the relationship between the press and American civic life from colonial days to the digital age. He shows that while opinions may differ, facts are not optional. How it can be possible to assure publication based on verifiable facts without curtailing differing opinions is the issue addressed throughout this collection of linked essays. Can internal verification earn the trust of the reading/listening public? Can a voluntary body of experts, like the Hutchins Commission, make workable rules? Can government--international, national, state or local--serve as a watchdog without violating the Constitution? Can the press, in the absence of malice, do less than full due diligence in commenting on a public official? These questions are addressed thoughtfully throughout this well written book, but no one, not even Stan, can answer them conclusively and for all situations. Ultimately, as Stan takes a look forward into the digital age, the age of learned intelligence and poses unanswerable questions about the future of the press.

Genres: Journalism, Nonfiction

214 pages, Paperback

Published December 7, 2019

Reviews

[Gilion Dumas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stanley E. Flink had a long career in journalism before teaching "Ethics and the Media" to journalism students for over 25 years. His new book Due Diligence and the News: Searching for a Moral Compass in the Digital Age is a collection of essays drawn from his lectures.

The book highlights the significant role that a free and responsible press has in our society, the need for truth and trust in a democracy, and how technology has fundamentally changed the environment in which information and news are conveyed. Flink raises questions with no simple answers, which is what makes his book so interesting.

Due Diligence and the News is timely, readable, and captivating for any newshound, whether journalist or news junky.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

At 95 Stanley Flink, as a veteran journalist, still maintains a full engagement with modern journalism and its role in American democracy. This book takes on the history of the press, the challenges it has faced throughout the history of our country, and what is required today in the digital age, where journalism has been under steady attack, particularly from the right, in an effort to discredit the power of independent journalism to hold those in power accountable in behalf of the American people. Flink asks all the right questions and gives us a lot to think about. Extremely well written and succinct, this book is certainly worth the time and effort to read and highly recommended.

[Csimplot Simplot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book!!!