The TexasFred Blog
No Holds Barred: News Opinion Commentary
This is The Header Then

Journalistic Integrity

January 30th, 2009 . by TexasFred

Journalistic Integrity

This morning there was a story floating around the net, I found it linked on Facebook, it has since been removed. The story is a complete SHAM.

The story is this: Military to Pledge Oath To Obama, Not Constitution and it has been posted on numerous sites including this one as well: Military to Pledge Oath To Obama, Not Constitution

Some people wonder why it’s taken so long for bloggers to become reputable in their reporting and commentary (Op/Ed pieces), I hold the above 2 posts up as testament to the fact, the blog world is STILL filled with IDIOTS!

Reactionary posting, *rumor mill* posting, the posting of unsourced and unverified stories, the “Well, I got it from a friend in an email and you know, they are always really good, they got it from this other friend and…”, that is the kind of CRAP that makes bloggers look bad!

I did a bit of investigation and almost immediately saw this entire story for what it was, a well constructed FAKE, a SHAM, a CRAP piece of slander journalism. One of the really great Mil-Blogs, BLACKFIVE, was also able to dispel this story and it’s associated sources as FAKE.

Folks, I have NO USE for Barack Obama, I make NO secret of that fact. That said, I will not be a part of, nor will I allow to stand, an outright LIE about the President of the United States of America. Barack Obama has his faults, on that nearly ALL of my readers will agree. We will have more than ample ammunition available to use against Obama in the blogs, we don’t have to make up lies. The truth will suffice.

I have NO problem with stating my OPINION, I do it quite often. But if I make a post that IS opinion, I make it quite obvious that it is just that, opinion. If you’re going to make a post that is based on news, from the MSM, or any other source, you had best be prepared to defend that post with a SOURCE. Citation is a writers best friend, and without citation, there can be NO journalistic integrity. It’s a simple matter of exercising professional and personal responsibility.

Don’t feed the *rumor mill*, check your sources, then recheck them, several times. If a blogger can’t post using responsible, and reputable information, then they need to stick to posting pictures of their kids and their cat, or talking about recipes. Go on splogging to your hearts content, but don’t try to pass off some fake BS like this as responsible blogging. Leave the serious blogging to REAL bloggers.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Bookmark and Share
Return: Top of Home Page

11 Responses to “Journalistic Integrity”

  1. comment number 1 by: WashingtonArmory.com

    Fred, Indeed there are far too many Bull sh*t blogs out there. I really don’t have time to read all that crap anyways but that is something that could go “Viral” and still might. Obambi does not however have any desire to have a military so I cannot see that. I am probably going to post volume 2 of my Legislation report tomorrow.

    http://usgoa.proboards.com/

  2. comment number 2 by: rtaylor83305

    I am glad you addressed this! If I saw that story one more time yesterday in my email, I thought I would go insane. It took me less than five minutes to find out the entire thing was crap..

    Fred, there is nothing to add - you took the words right out of my keyboard!

  3. comment number 3 by: Kate

    I actually saw that somewhere, and started thinking…someone must be smoking crack. He wasn’t who I would have preferred in the WH, obviously, but I kind of doubt he’s already gone that far over the edge. I, too, am glad you addressed this.

  4. comment number 4 by: petcampbell

    Hey Fred!
    Some of us like cats.. And amazingly enough we can blog about cats or have a good rant.. And still tell the damn truth.

  5. comment number 5 by: TexasFred

    Pet, *some* can, you’re one of em… Many can’t even take a good pic OF a cat… LMAO…

  6. comment number 6 by: Kate

    Hey! I resemble that remark. :P

  7. comment number 7 by: TexasFred

    Kate, I’ve seen pics of your, uh, uh.. Wait.. Your CAT… :P

    Yeah, that’s it, CAT!! :)

  8. comment number 8 by: Kate

    Think kitty giving you raspberries! Heh.

  9. comment number 9 by: TexasFred


    Kitteh blows a RASPBERRY!

  10. comment number 10 by: Kate

    Exactly! :)

  11. comment number 11 by: Longstreet

    Thank you, Fred for an excellent piece on journalist integrity!

    I still have not seen that e-mail, nor that blog site. But… it does not surprize me.

    Obama will give us all the amminition we need to write good, insightful, articles that will cause readers to think. We don’t need to gussie it up with untruths. Plus, it is hard enough to get people to take us seriously, as it is, without some mental lightweight making the whole blogosphere look bad.

    Thank you, sir. My hat is off to you… again!

    Longstreet