Stink-O-Gram
The Stink-O-Gram is a fast, effective way to send journalists your thoughts—and be heard. The speedy Stink-O-Gram form uses an intuitive, easy to use, animated scale. The animations are ranked in terms of increasing severity—a moldy piece of cheese, a stinky shoe, a smelly skunk, a dead fish, a putrid New York City garbage can. Each symbol is meant to represent the varying degrees of stink encountered in poorly executed news stories.
The Code of Ethics Menu provides a list of ethical standards taken directly from The Society of Professional Journalists. The form allows you to identify the specific points you think have been violated while using the "inside journalism" language that resonate with professional journalists.
With a few clicks of a mouse, and a chuckle, you can send your thoughts to a journalist. You can copy your friends, along with the journalist's media employer and editors.
Why Are Stink-O-Grams Needed?
The unsworn duty of a journalist is to “seek truth and report it.” Journalists are equally obligated to “expose unethical practices of [fellow] journalists in the news media.”
Yet, how many times have you written a letter to the editor citing an objective, measurable error, which went ignored? Conversely, have you noted the power of a journalist's public voice? Compared to the impact of your letter, such inviolable “authority,” access to millions of citizens, and permanence of their words on the Internet are daunting. As a private citizen, you may have felt extreme powerlessness because of this inequity.
It is often said that journalism holds up a mirror to society. But how can we, as citizens, without being censored, mirror our thoughts and feelings back to them as permanently and as powerfully?
Journalist and ethicist Roy Peter Clark, Vice-President and Senior Scholar of the Poynter Institute, warns the public to expect the media to publish their ethical policies and to “read them and hold us accountable.” In “An Open Letter to Citizens” ( a hypothetical editorial from “editors of your local newspapers” addressed to “fellow citizens”), Clark promises that as journalists, “We' ll do our part. We promise, but we need you to do yours.”
How It Works
So you’ve found an article or news program that you feel has breached journalistic standards by citing incorrect facts, making use of fishy, anonymous sources, or incorporating blatant sensationalism . . .
1. Click the Send a Stink-O-Gram link or button and fill out basic information: the name of the journalist, publication, article or program, and date.
2. Carefully examine Stinky Scale animations and click to select the one that best expresses the intensity of your feelings on a 1-5 scale (the Stinky Garbage Can, for example, denotes the harshest rating).
3. Next, click on Code of Ethics Menu and then check the ethical standards you think apply.
4. You may then add a personal message in the My Thoughts space. Choose among the suggested links or add your own link suggestion.
Public Service
For Citizens…Willful blindness to reader feedback leads to public apathy. Stinky Journalism.org, therefore, offers a quick, easy and targeted alternative to spending time composing a letter that may never see the light of day.
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