Monday marked a major point in MSNBC’s split from parent company Comcast as NBC correspondents not based in Washington D.C. would no longer appear on MSNBC with D.C.-based reporters severing ties on October 20. But the funniest aspect of Monday’s split was the release of a new code of conduct — dubbed “10 core principles” by an executive with MSNBC’s new parent company, Versant — that include things like “accuracy,” “fairness,” and “integrity.”
Shared with Poynter, the first one listed was integrity with this definition: “We uphold the highest ethical standards. We respect the law when reporting the news. We advocate for journalists’ rights. We protect and defend press freedom and the First Amendment. We respect our colleagues, our sources and the communities we cover.”
Cue The Price Is Right sad trombone. If the network soon to be known as MSNOW was concerned about integrity, why then did they have to settle a defamation suit in February for false stories about a Georgia doctor shows had dubbed “the uterus collector?”
Or anything that came out of the mouth of Joy Reid during either of her stops at the network?
Play the womp, womp sound again after hearing point two about “accuracy”: “We aim to be accurate in our reporting 100 percent of the time. If we establish that our reporting is flawed, we take prompt action to correct or clarify the mistake.”
Point four was supposed to go hand-in-hand: “Opinion: The views expressed by our opinion journalists and contributors are based on accurate, reported facts.”
In between the two was one about “fairness,” which they said MSNBC would “report the news with an open mind[.]”
Back in August, our Bill D’Agostino found MSNBC teamed up with CNN to recite debunked D.C. crime stats 73 times in a 24-hour period.
Another example occurred on Monday itself with Deadline: White House host Nicolle Wallace and legal analyst Mary McCord falsely claiming the fire at a South Carolina judge’s home was tied to the Trump administration.
Investigators had said, in fact, there’s no evidence it was an act of political violence.
And back during the election season, MSNBC falsely claimed then-Senator JD Vance (R-OH) was lying about Governor Tim Walz (D-MN) embellishing his military record.
We could go on, but needless to say, accuracy and integrity are things no one should associate with such a partisan network.
Points seven through nine — perspectives, transparency, and independence — were also laughably false when it comes to both the network’s past and where’s headed:
- Perspectives: We believe our audience is best served when our journalism reflects a variety of perspectives on the world we cover.
- Transparency: We disclose to our audience any commercial initiatives that may intersect with our editorial content.
- Independence: We avoid any real or perceived conflicts of interest. We do not accept gifts or favors that could appear to influence news judgment.
On the “perspectives” plank, at least CNN has four actual conservatives — Scott Jennings, Shermichael Singleton, Brad Todd, and David Urban — on their payroll. Who does MSNBC have? John Kasich and Carlos Curbelo don’t count.
Versant senior vice president of standards and editorial partnerships for news Brain Carovillano emailed staff and spoke to Poytner’s Tom Jones, arguing “core journalism values like fairness, transparency and accuracy are all critical to maintaining trust between news organizations and their audiences,” which in MSNBC’s case is “incredibly loyal and dedicated.”
“Today, we’re stating our commitment to these core values as we step into a new era for our organization, but in many ways it’s a restatement of the principles we’ve always followed,” he added.
