BuzzFeed’s Decision to Publish Trump Report Raises Ethics Questions
January 11, 2017
BuzzFeed’s decision to publish an intelligence report filled with salacious and unsubstantiated claims about Donald Trump’s purported behaviour in Russia has triggered a political storm and debate over media ethics.
The news website posted the unredacted documents on Tuesday, just 10 days before Trump’s inauguration, with a warning that the contents contained errors and were “unverified and potentially unverifiable”.
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So, if some unnamed “government officials” start circulating memos that President Obama smoked meth in the Rose Garden, and members of the intelligence community started to discuss these allegations that Obama smoked meth in the Rose Garden, though no evidence existed proving this claim, a newspaper would then be able to print these allegations without fear of legal reprisal? Wouldn’t such a situation fit the definition of “reckless disregard for the truth?”