Matt Richtel's First Obligation Is The Truth

In an ever changing world, the need for news is more prevalent today than ever before. However, who brings the news to the masses without interfering with one's’ ability to form their own opinion on the topic? Journalists; and they achieve this through the implementation of the “Elements of Journalism” by the American Press Institute. One such example of these journalists is Pulitzer Prize winner Matt Richtel who puts these elements to the test in his articles. In accordance with the ten elements of good journalism, the first element is that Journalism’s First Obligation Is The Truth. Through the implementation of this first element, a journalist provides transparency about their sources and methods used, creating reliability of those sources

It’s first loyalty is to citizens. Element two incorporates credibility between the journalist and citizens/readers as Matt Richtel has shown to do through his in depth sourcing which provides his credibility towards his information. Element two, however, involves much more than credibility. It involves a journalists ability to put the truth and interest of the public above his/her personal assumptions and interests. Matt Richtel excels in this through his implementation of multiple sources on different sides of the arguments spectrum, or element three. Richtel starts through expressing one side of an argument, as he does in his article “Phone Makers Could Cut Off Drivers. So Why Don’t They?” (where he starts off with the argument as to why texting accidents are at the fault of wireless companies or cellphone makers for not implementing their researched technology that locks the driver out of using his/her cell phone device, and then flips the tables where he gives perspective to the contradicting side of the argument, sometimes bouncing back and forth between the two multiple times within an article. Through Richtel’s execution of this ping-pong game of words, he is able to remain free of bias or self-interest in his work as he has his sources battle out the conflicting sides of the article.

Richtel does a nice job at keeping topics proportional as he brings up many sides to the topic, not just concentrating on a certain one and making it seem more important than the other ones. The ping-pong game of words implemented into Richtel’s writing is brought back to light in reference to element nine, It’s Practitioners Must Be Allowed To Exercise Their Personal Conscience. Element nine focuses on Encouraging People to Speak Their Minds Through Debate, for example, Richtel’s large usage of first person sources allows for this idea of letting people speak their minds as it allows for them to share their specific viewpoints which, in turn, is cause for debate within the article as the viewpoints of opposite sources are also shared in