For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for February 10, 2024

A great line

Mike learns a lesson that most reporters today don’t seem to get…

Good for Mike.

A great life’s lesson to build upon….

In modern journalism, that gets you unemployed.

I love that look Mr. Bergner has on his face as he delivers that last line.

IMHO, Mr. Bergner deserves MUCH better from life than the hand he was dealt.

So…Monday starts another arc, right? I hope it focuses on something other than Elly’s neuroses!!

Listen to your conscience!

Celebrity vs honesty. I’ve chosen the former a long time ago. Look at me now

True that.

One of the worst things that ever happened to the western world was the rise of 24/7 Cable News Networks in the late 1980’s.

‘Integrity’ is a word that has been banned from most dictionaries on journalists’ desks.

Morning Lynn, You got that Right, Good Day!

the world needs more integrity

A nice arc would be Mr. Beringer coming around and approving publication. And then maybe being recognized in some public way by the school body.

Sad but true.

A brilliant line!

Integrity is best because one would know it. What anyone else thinks if irrelevant, and the truth comes out.

Something that’s far too lacking these days, and not just in journalism. We’re all the worse for that.

No integrity? Well, FOX is hiring.

Maybe Mr. Bergner will read it & change his mind & tell Michael to publish it after all? Idk I don’t remember this storyline.

I barely remember when the evening news expanded to half an hour from fifteen minutes. That gave the networks time to tell you how to feel about the news (not that there was much more news). Now you can be entertained for twenty three hours and forty five minutes being told how you feel about fifteen minutes of news from any politic-emotional-demographic perspective that suits you. I miss Paul Harvey, at least he said outright his program ( five minutes in the morning) was news and comment.

He has a lot of wisdome though. From a life well lived.

I wish all journalists cared more about integrity than they do about loyalty or money.

I figure doing something like this is still good manners!

O well, Mike…But now WE all know the man’s story don’t we?! ;)

I’m glad to see Michael do the right thing.

As someone who worked in newsrooms for 20 years, I can tell you journalists are not rewarded for integrity.

Well done…..

And that’s journalism lesson number three.

I knew he wouldn’t do it! Good man.

Considering the history of journalism over the past two hundred years or so, it seems that integrity has always been in short supply. Willingness to favor one political faction or another…. well, that’s a different matter.

So, guess he won’t be interviewing Putin, then?

amen

Absolutely Mr. Bergenfield!

Crazy spell check Mr. Bergner.

Mike is learning more about journalism from Mr. Bergner than Weed knows about any subject.

Wisdom!

Yep, this was definitely written long before “journalists” lost their morals.

Mike will be the only one that gets that.

Mr. Bergner is a very wise man.

At one time…….

Well said.

Sadly, another great thing we have loss. If any of have enough money you could buy the media too.

Great words of advice to today’s so-called journalists… To bad they choose to ignore this basic precept.

(Mike) will remember this conversation and will use it as a lesson for the remainder of his career.

@MichaelAxelFleming: “Ethical journalists exist.”

The existence of actual “journalists” — as they were defined when I studied “journalism” — is in doubt. At that time, the primary rule for a news article was that it be “clear, concise, and accurate”.

With the essentially unlimited page length of internet “news” sites, “concise” seems to be a word that the “journalists” not only don’t understand, but may never have heard.

“Clear”? I don’t consider it “clear” if I have to scroll through three screen-pages or more of what everyone was wearing and their family histories before reaching what was mentioned in the headline.

As for “accurate”, adding numerous details that don’t describe the event which is (supposedly) the purpose of the article but which the writer feels might be somehow related doesn’t increase accuracy; it obscures it.

A consequence of that 3-part rule — when articles were limited by size and number of pages and competition for page space from other articles and ads — was that the most important information was contained in the first paragraph, with each succeeding paragraph adding a bit more detail, in decreasing order of importance. That way, if an editor decided that an article needed to be shortened (use less space), it could be done by progressively deleting paragraphs from the end, without leaving a “dangling” detail with no clue as to what it was a detail of/for.

But too many of today’s “journalists” seem to feel obliged to write novels — or at least short stories — somehow “inspired by” the actual news event. And I suspect that one result of this is that many readers minds will “fill in” presumed details from their memory of previous “news”, without ever getting to the writers’ descriptions of their own actual observations.

Alas, it seems that Mr. Bergner is giving Mike better advice than his parents ever did, although it seems that Lynn recognizes that.

I’ve been worried about how this would go. I’m so glad Michael did the right thing!

Sounds like Lynn Johnston confronted the woman whose face she saw in the mirror after writing this strip.

A journalist with integrity? Really? Oxymoron if I ever heard of one.

Maybe not to today’s standard, but great words of wisdom. We need good reporting, especially without all the sensationalism!

No MAGAt will understand this cartoon.

They believe Tucker is a journalist.

I saw a meme about “point of view”:

Photograph of Dan Rather interviewing Putin: Journalism

Photograph of Barbara Walters interviewing Putin: Journalism

Photograph of Tom Brokaw interviewing Putin: Journalism

Photograph of Tucker Carlson interviewing Putin: Treason!

Nice job Lynne Johnston.

Has no one figured out where this is going? The article will be published… Then all H E double hockey sticks will break loose. All to the detriment of poor Mr. Bergner. Say… What nationality is he??? (That was a hint)

This story line is a homerun. Very good.

This truth made me cry thankful tears. Yes. Integrity counts.

MSNBC should read this today.

Looking forward to tomorrow’s strip. Will John, Elly, Elizabeth, April, Connie, Greg, and Gordon be doing the Tomahawk chop in support of the Kansas City Chiefs?

Based on that quality, good journalism is dead.

Awww! ❤️

Another of life’s best lessons, Mike

So be it.

Something that seems to be sadly lacking in way too many publications today. Especially on the outer extremes, and most recently (it wasn’t always this way) on the so called right.

Now I know why there are so few journalists. And pollies.