Maybe right 90% of the time but scumbags 100% of the time

George Jonas on the ethics of his fellow journalists:

...“‘Think dirty, and 90% of the time you’ll be right.’” ...

Reading what some of my colleagues have been saying about public-figures-turned-media-targets ... makes me wonder ... Perhaps they’ll score in the end, for thinking dirty may well make one right 90% of the time, but the parallel fact is that thinking dirty is disgusting 100% of the time. [And at least 10% of the time they're guilty of defamation].

... publishing before the evidence is in, commenting on the basis of allegations as if they were proven facts, smearing people on the basis of rumours and innuendos, piling on, attacking like a pack of jackals an unfashionable target, going after someone who seems wounded and unable to defend himself — that’s disgusting, and not made less disgusting by a subsequent consensus or endorsement by public opinion. It’s especially ugly to calumniate people, then hide behind a climate of slander that the original calumny helped create. ...

Bravo! Well said, George!