Standards? I don't need no stinking standards!

 I could have sworn I had posted these at some point in the past decade or so.  But apparently not.  I have seen a couple of versions.

From PBS, here are Jim Lehrer's ground rules for journalism:

• Do nothing I cannot defend.
• Do not distort, lie, slant or hype.
• Do not falsify facts or make up quotes.
• Cover, write and present every story with the care I would want if the story were about me.
• Assume there is at least one other side or version to every story.
• Assume the viewer is as smart and as caring and as good a person as I am. 
• Assume the same about all people on whom I report.
• Assume everyone is innocent till proven guilty.
• Assume personal lives are a private matter until a legitimate turn in the story absolutely mandates otherwise.
• Carefully separate opinion and analysis from straight news stories, and clearly label everything.
• Do not use anonymous sources or blind quotes except on rare and monumental occasions. No one should be able to attack another anonymously.
• Do not broadcast profanity or the end result of violence unless it is an integral and necessary part of the story and/or crucial to its understanding.
• Acknowledge that objectivity may be impossible but fairness never is.
• Journalists who are reckless with facts and reputations should be disciplined by their employers.
• My viewers have right to know what principles guide my work and the process I use in their practice.  
• Finally, I am not in the entertainment business.

Halcyon days those were when there were such journalists.  Little in most mainstream media would now pass such seemingly obvious but apparently stringent standards.