A Severe Ethics Lapse As NBC Flies Victim Of Custody Battle From Brazil

An American father got to take his son home from Brazil after a horrendous custody battle with the child’s step-father which lasted for five years.

No one would be shocked if “The National Enquirer” or “The Star” paid to fly the boy home in exchange for exclusive rights to his story. The child did get to return to US soil in a private plane and it was provided by NBC News, one of the most respected news organizations in America.

The network’s excuse, according to the AP, was that one of its competitors would have offered the child and his father travel arrangements. Why shouldn’t NBC take advantage of the opportunity first? David Goldman, the boy’s father, appeared on the “Today” show.

The Society of Professional Journalists rightly attacked NBC’s actions.

NBC and other traditional news outlets are under tremendous pressure to keep their ratings high as they face more competition from cable channels including Fox News and CNN. The old-world networks are also up against online news sites, news aggregators, and well-visited gossip web properties. The temptation to cut corners in gathering news and to break traditional ethical standards for reporting is substantial.

The rush of competition from “news” organizations such as Huffington Post and Drudge Report, which try to take readers from NBC, CBS, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, is still growing. That means the profitability and even the existence of these old school media outlets is drawn into question. Breaking their moral standards for writing and reporting the news may be their only way to survive.

There is another way to look at the challenge to traditional media. There are only a few “legitamate’ news companies left in America. Readers who want balanced and largely unbiased information about the world have fewer places to turn as the years pass. That will almost certainly give those old media outlets that survive a permanent audience of people who care about  the ethical gathering and reporting of news.

Douglas A. McIntyre