Flashing Sirons and Red Flags: the 3 things a Journalist should avoid

Who the **** thinks that the president is a good guy? Why in the world would anyone vote for him. He was caught saying "dying puppies are fun to watch" and his wife has been convicted of murder. It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. (This is a fabricated paragraph in order to give an example of wrongful journalism and is in no way aimed to give an opinion or statement of truth about the president)

Three Fatal Mistakes. All three of which can be found in the above paragraph. Opinionated Bias, Fabrication, and Plagiarism. And all three of which could get a journalist into a great deal of trouble. Before publishing any kind of story Journalist always needs to be very aware of what they are writing and any liabilities that could be involved if handed out to the public.

What's so wrong with the above paragraph? Seems like it's just someone stating what they think about the president. EXACTLY. It's opinion based. The first sentence could not only be considered offensive for it's language but it also has no facts to back it up. It is completely a matter of opinion.Alfred C. Kinsey stated "We are recorders and reporters of the facts- not judges of the behavior we describe"

Then what about the frabrication? Did the president really state that he likes to watch dying puppies? Is the first lady really a murderer? Of course not. All of these things were a fabrication. A lie or according to dictionary.com it's an untruthful statement. From the textbook Inside Reporting John Hersey was quoted writing "There is one sacred rule of journalism, the writer must not invent. The legend on the license must read: None of this was made up."

Lastly the worst journalistic sin of them all: Plagiarism. The claim that something someone else had written was your own handywork. The last sentence in the beginning paragraph is actually plagiarized from the Martin Luther King Jr. "I have a dream" speech. The reason this is considered plagiarized is because it was neither quoted or acknowledged as someone else's statement. This makes the reader assume that it was written by the journalist. There are plagiarism and copyright laws that could cause a journalist to go to court if caught.

So what's the simple solution to writing a good article? Know all of your facts and cite all of your sources.