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A recent study indicated that almost nine in ten Americans believe journalists use illegal or unethical methods. Two-thirds feel that stories are made up and passed off as real.
In this past year there have been numerous cases of tarnished ethics involving well-respected news teams: CNN retracted a story televised and published jointly with Time magazine that alleged the U.S. military used a nerve agent to kill defectors during the Vietnam War. The Cincinnati Enquirer retracted a story based in part on information stolen from a telephone message system. At The New Republic magazine and The Boston Globe, writers made up quotes and people that appeared in stories.
The public is seeing the need for stricter attention to ethics and accuracy in the news business.
Some possible reasons include weak editing, pressure to beat the competition, narrative retelling of events that reporters don't actually witness themselves, busy senior editors who spend too little time with the stories their reporters write, and a cult of journalism celebrity that gives reporters free license. 
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