Do reporters routinely lie to their sources?

Do reporters routinely lie to sources and interview leads to get to the bottom of the story? Last weekend I saw the movie State of Play staring Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck – it was a very good movie but that is not where I am heading.

Rachael McAdams plays a blogger turned reporter for the fictitious DC newspaper the Washington Globe. On several occasions she lies to people in order to get access to potential leads.My question is how common is this behavior in real life because it is quite common in the movies? The media is there to protect us against government, politicians and business that sometimes lie to the public. And every time a reporter lies because it is a convenient way to get deeper into a story they undermine their credibility when they want and need to be trusted.

Now granted in this story line you have some very nasty villains that are killing people. And just like when Jack Bauer lies to the bad guys on 24, if the circumstances are dire enough, lying to bad guys is the least of my concerns. But institutional lying on a routine basis is an easy habit to get into.

I have the same issue with the television depiction of the police routinely lying to witnesses and suspects. If they are going to lie to these people are they lying to you and me? I really do not know in real life if this is the way things are done but these lies can be quite entertaining when they are part of a good fictional story – I just don’t want the media or the police to actually use this method of operation anywhere near me. Let’s have a few stories about reporters and police using their imagination to get the story without lowering our ethical standards.