April 29, 2011, Greencastle, Ind. — A story in today's Los Angeles Times, detailing criticism leveled against NBC by an MSNBC commentator over the handling of Donald Trump, includes comments from a DePauw University professor.
"MSNBC commentator Lawrence O'Donnell escalated attacks on NBC executives this week," write Greg Braxton and Meg James. "On his MSNBC show The Last Word With Lawrence O'Donnell Wednesday night, he accused NBC (another division of his own company) of allowing The Celebrity Apprentice host Donald Trump to spread 'racist' lies against President Obama in demanding that Obama produce his long-form birth certificate. The blast by O'Donnell raises the question of how the network will proceed with Trump, who has said he is considering running for president, as he continues to host one of NBC's highest-rated shows."
Bob Steele, Distinguished Visiting Professor of
Journalism Ethics at DePauw and Phyllis W. Nicholas Director of the University's Janet Prindle Institute for
Ethics, tells the Times, "The news division has to be completely independent. They must be as rigorous and vigorous about going after
the Trump story as they would be going after anyone else who doesn't
have a show on NBC."
Access the article at the newspaper's website.
A 1969 graduate of DePauw, and one of America's leading experts on media ethics, Robert M. Steele was recently quoted in the New York Times and Washington Post and chaired a task force that reviewed the ethics policy of NPR, as noted in this article.