The Media Integrity Project
Oct 19, 2026
Committee Chair Who Helped Revise It
Dr. Dan Axelrod, chair of the Society of Professional Journalists Ethics Committee and co-chair of its Code Revision Subcommittee, joins host Jessica Wiederhorn to discuss the first major update to the SPJ Code of Ethics since 2014 and what the new standards mean for journalists, story subjects, and the public.
[LOS ANGELES, Calif.] — The Humanity in Journalism podcast today released its latest episode, "Ethics in Journalism: A Conversation with the Man Who Helped Rewrite the Code," featuring Dr. Dan Axelrod, chair of the Society of Professional Journalists Ethics Committee and co-chair of its Code Revision Subcommittee. The episode, hosted by Jessica Wiederhorn, founder of The Media Integrity Project, examines the sixth revision to the SPJ Code of Ethics, marking its 100th anniversary, and explores what ethical journalism looks like in practice across every kind of reporting.
The episode is available now on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.
ABOUT THE EPISODE
The SPJ Code of Ethics has been the foundational standard for American journalism since 1926. In its 100th year, the Society of Professional Journalists approved its sixth revision, incorporating new language on misinformation, AI and technology, presumption of innocence, and sponsored content transparency.
"What makes us different, not only as humans but as a society, is ethical storytelling. And what separates us is the commitment to getting it right. The code is not about perfection. It is about making a good faith effort every time, being humble enough to correct the record, and remembering that somebody's life is on the line." - Dr. Dan Axelrod
In this episode, Axelrod walks through what changed, why the committee made the choices it did, and what the code means in practice for journalists at every level. The conversation covers:
• The six new additions to the updated code, including new standards on challenging misinformation and disinformation, avoiding false equivalence, verifying AI-generated content, and respecting the presumption of innocence in criminal coverage
• Why the code remains entirely voluntary and why that matters more than enforcement
• How opinion journalism carries the same ethical obligations as straight news reporting, and why that standard is harder to meet than most people assume
• The economic forces behind declining media trust, including the shift from 30% newspaper margins in 2006 to the current crisis of advertising revenue
• What readers and the public can do to promote ethical journalism and hold newsrooms accountable
• The right to be forgotten in Europe and why no equivalent formal process exists in the United States
• How The Media Integrity Project's ReporterLens tool measures ethical alignment across more than 9,000 analyzed articles, and what the data consistently shows: when ethics is present, excellence follows
ABOUT DR. DAN AXELROD
Dr. Dan Axelrod is the chair of the Society of Professional Journalists Ethics Committee and co-chair of its Code Revision Subcommittee. He spent a decade as a journalist, rising to become Gannett's syndicated New York business reporter with coverage running in 14 papers statewide. He has earned 15 awards for in-depth and investigative journalism. For the past decade he has taught media ethics, journalism, and strategic communications at the collegiate level, and now focuses primarily on media consulting and strategic communications. He is a member of the SPJ Ethics Committee, which fielded surveys from more than 700 participants, including 350 members of the public and 350 journalism professionals, in developing the updated code.
ABOUT HUMANITY IN JOURNALISM
Humanity in Journalism is a podcast from The Media Integrity Project featuring open, reflective conversations with journalists, experts, and the people inside the stories. The podcast examines the decisions behind journalism that rarely make it into the story itself: how a journalist thinks through a piece, what they weigh, whose voice they center, and whether they stop to consider the lived consequences for the people they write about.
New episodes release every other Tuesday on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. Learn more at humanityinjournalism.com.
ABOUT THE MEDIA INTEGRITY PROJECT
The Media Integrity Project is an independent, nonpartisan organization dedicated to advancing transparency, accountability, and humanity in journalism. The organization analyzes the structural quality of published journalism through ReporterLens, a free AI-powered article analysis tool grounded in the SPJ Code of Ethics. As of October 2026, ReporterLens has been used to analyze more than 9,000 published articles. The tool is free, requires no login, and is available at reporterlens.app.
Website: themediaintegrityproject.com
Podcast: humanityinjournalism.com
ReporterLens: reporterlens.app
Instagram: @humanityinjournalism · @themediaintegrityproject
MEDIA CONTACT
The Media Integrity Project