Courtesy of Versant
The newly-independent MSNBC took its first steps separate from NBC News on Monday as leadership circulated a list of “10 principles” for the standards they expect from their journalists.
Tom Jones at The Poynter Report covered the developments at the cable news network as it prepares to officially become “MS NOW” as it’s spun off from NBC Universal as part of Versant, a separate company. As Jones reported, as of Monday, MSNBC stopped using NBC News correspondents or crews other than in Washington, D.C., and that too will end Oct. 20. By the end of the month, MSNBC staff won’t be joining the NBC News editorial calls and meetings and “will be fully independent.”
The upcoming name change to “MS NOW” drops the NBC from the network’s moniker and stands for “My Source for News, Opinion and the World.”
Brian Carovillano, MSNBC’s senior vice president of standards and editorial partnerships for news at Versant, sent a message to staff Monday to share “10 core principles for our journalists and journalism” that were designed to be “a set of guidelines that will guide our decision-making and reinforce trust with our audience.”
“We operate in a world and an industry that is undergoing rapid change, and our broader standards manual will be an organic document that reflects this reality by adapting and changing with the times,” Carovillano wrote. “But our principles will be enduring. The intent is that, for years to come, we will be able to point to these and say this is what we stand for. Or, better yet, This Is Who We Are.”
The 10 principles are as follows:
Integrity: We uphold the highest ethical standards. We respect the law when reporting the news. We advocate for journalists’ rights. We protect and defend press freedom and the First Amendment. We respect our colleagues, our sources and the communities we cover.
Accuracy: We aim to be accurate in our reporting 100 percent of the time. If we establish that our reporting is flawed, we take prompt action to correct or clarify the mistake.
Fairness: We report the news with an open mind. We aim to give the subject(s) of our original reporting an opportunity to comment before publication.
Opinion: The views expressed by our opinion journalists and contributors are based on accurate, reported facts.
Our Sources: Our objective is to rely on sources we can identify, by name, in our reporting. When anonymity is the only way to report critical information, we aim to have sources with firsthand knowledge and to be transparent about why we granted them anonymity.
Emerging Technologies: We use generative AI and other technology tools when they can improve our journalism, but we will not publish content created solely by AI, and we disclose any public-facing use of AI.
Perspectives: We believe our audience is best served when our journalism reflects a variety of perspectives on the world we cover.
Transparency: We disclose to our audience any commercial initiatives that may intersect with our editorial content.
Independence: We avoid any real or perceived conflicts of interest. We do not accept gifts or favors that could appear to influence news judgment.Who We Are: Our journalists hold themselves to the same high standards of professional and journalistic integrity in their outside appearances and on their personal social media.
Jones interviewed Carovillano about the transition to MS NOW and these new principles, mentioning a recent Gallup poll that showed trust in media was at “an all-time low” with American audiences across the partisan spectrum.
“Can this transparent code of principles help regain the trust of audiences?” asked Jones.
Carovillano replied that the researched showed “core journalism values like fairness, transparency and accuracy are all critical to maintaining trust between news organizations and their audiences,” adding that MSNBC was “fortunate to have an incredibly loyal and dedicated audience, and some of the most impressive engagement levels of any media organization,” and they were “stating our commitment to these core values as we step into a new era for our organization, but in many ways it’s a restatement of the principles we’ve always followed.”
Regarding AI, Carovillano said the technology was useful “in limited ways, to bolster and improve our audience experience,” and they were “exploring more opportunities where it can help supercharge our journalism in new and innovative ways,” but emphasized their “commitment” that AI “would never be a substitute for authentic journalism produced by real journalists.”
The post MSNBC’s Rebrand, MS NOW, Releases ’10 Principles’ to Guide Network’s Use of AI, Transparency, Ethical Standards first appeared on Mediaite.
