Act Independently

"Act independently" means to me that you need to be aware of being fair while you report and try to be as unbiased as possible. There are many different scenarios where one would like to act independently as a reporter.

If you are a reporter, people are looking to you to do the right thing and not be swayed by anyone. Reporters need the integrity to do the right thing and to never be bribed by anyone.

For Journalism 235 with Professor Farrish this semester I had to interview a reporter at the Hartford Courant. I talked to Christine Dempsey and learned a lot from our conversation. One of her stories pops into my head when I think about acting independently.

In 2000, she was investigating a story about an East Hartford cop who was linked to the murder of his roommate years before. While she was doing the investigation, she found a lot of evidence against this cop. Yet, she couldn't tell the police department what she was investigating because she knew they'd be unhappy with her and ask for her to stop.

So, she decided that she would keep it secret and only tell the other reporter she was working with what she was actually doing. She obviously didn't want to feel the police department's pressure to not tell the story. She believed the public should be aware if the story so she kept it private until it was published.

She avoided many possible conflicts by doing this.