Topic > Publishing Fake News: Lying in Journalism

Professional journalists are authoritative sources that the public relies on for up-to-date, accurate information on a variety of topics. Unfortunately for some publications this is not the case. “Faking It Sex Lies and Magazines,” by Liza Featherstone, reveals the truth about racy magazines. Journalists admit that major magazines often heavily embellish articles about sex or make them up entirely. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayIt's hard to believe that magazines can get away with actively lying to their readers who trust them as a reliable source. Some journalists don't even try to hide it. According to Featherstone, the executive editor of Elle magazine admitted that “we lie about sex” and the jury did not deny it. Journalists should be the informants and recorders of our everyday world. When “many attribute lies to deadline pressure,” that is not an excuse. In any profession it is not acceptable to take the easy way out. A journalist reporting on the spread of a particular disease cannot simply make up a story about who is infected or how they contracted the disease. First of all it is morally wrong, it would ruin the reputation of the publisher and finally the reader would not be adequately informed. So this doesn't happen: fact-checkers will examine an article for inconsistencies to ensure the public is adequately informed. However, articles about sex are not considered a priority during fact-checking. In Featherstone's article, a fact-checker admitted that magazines often claim that sex can help you lose weight, but that's not often the case. Women read these articles as a source of reliable information, but publications let these stories go into production on the basis that none of the articles claim "can be proven false." Fitness magazines do research to support the diets and workouts they recommend, otherwise they wouldn't be a reliable source. It is unfair to hold journalists to different standards. It was a little awkward trying to find relevant articles, but Cosmo and Marie Claire had examples of some of the issues raised in the article. In the article “The Orgasm Deficit,” writer Heather Wood Rudulph began with an anecdote about a girl named Brittany who had only one orgasm in her entire life. However, at the end of the article it turns out that “The names have been changed,” which according to Featherstone's article “can mean anything, including 'Totally made up.' "After learning this, the reader should question the integrity of the entire article. Later in the Cosmo article, Rudulph states that the FDA has approved 26 treatments for erectile dysfunction and has developed zero for women However, there is an FDA-approved treatment. According to WebMD, there is a device called Eros that helps increase blood flow to the genitals. Cosmo's article would have been correct if he had said that the FDA has not approved an enhancement drug sex of women. This incident was not an intentional lie created by Rulduph, but it shows that fact-checkers did not recognize his poor choice of words. Although it is unethical for a journalist to publish a mainstream sex article with false information, It must be an unfulfilling job. Faking It, Cosmo editor Chandra Czape admits that a truly good journalist must feel frustrated and that "it can't be the pinnacle of someone's journalism career." For example, Lodro Rinzler is an author and teacher of.