Absence Of Malice

Orlando M. Delgado González
Media and the Movies
Carole Feldman
March 16, 2015

Absence of Malice Making a story out of the first information that comes to your hands is something a journalist should never do, at least not before verifying that the information provided is true. People tend to confuse the words truth and accuracy when it comes to information. Some fact might be accurate but are a lie, they are accurate to the lie; other details can be true but the ways they are presented are inaccurate. A journalist should search a way to make his or her information the most true and accurate there is in order to make himself accountable and transparent for the audience. People read news every day and believe what is said, as a journalist the best you can do is tell the truth, you don’t want people believing and living a lie. In the movie “Absence of Malice” we can see how the journalist in a desperate way to get the story out did not thought about the truth behind the information she was given. Morgan, the journalist in the movie, tried her best to get a good story in the papers and her hype let her to write an accurate but false story. It all started when she accepted to write a report on how Gallagher was guilty of the disappearance of a Latino worker at his factory. The facts she used for this report were accurate but also false because they were used as bait because Gallagher was an informant and was helping to get the information of who was responsible of the criminal act. We can see how the title of the movie is reflecting in this situation because of her lack of malice looking for the truth before reporting the news. Morgan wanted to get the story out so much that she did not cared of who might be harmed and when she got the information about Teresa’s abortion she instead of thinking what harm can these information make to the audience, Morgan went straight to the typewriter and made it news. As said in the SPJ Code of Ethics as a journalist you should try to minimize harm and Morgan failed to do that because when the report went public Teresa was found dead after committing suicide. You have to anticipate what can happen and who can be harmed about the details you release to the public; your voice is heard throughout the country so you should have caution with what you write. Being involved with one of the sources or with the accused in order to get more information is a violation to the SPJ Code of Ethics. Morgan got involved with Gallagher because she was willing to do whatever was in her hands to get the facts correctly. While looking for the truth she was submerged in the lie and when the time came all the “truth” was just a series of accurate false facts.
As a journalist she failed in all the aspects of the job but at the end she noticed and accepted that she had to be more malicious and get better, “Not yet” answering to Gallagher when he said that she is a great journalist. Here we can see how she accepted her errors and was willing to fix them.