A Private Phone. Secret Recordings. Inside One CEO’s Relationship With a TV Anchor. – WSJ

“Under Armour founder Kevin Plank gave television anchor Stephanie Ruhle a private phone with a special email address to communicate with him, sent her confidential financial information about the sportswear maker and enlisted her help to refute concerns about slumping sales, according to newly released court documents.”

Ruhle is a now an anchor at MSNBC. This is today’s journalism ethics. As long as the purpose of media is to manipulate you, then we are all good. Ruhle is a pretend journalist. She has a BA in international business.

I read this story, above, the same day I had begun reading a book that is an introduction to journalism. The first chapter was all about how ethical journalists are, and how tough it is to be fair, blah blah blah, and how wonderful journalists are. Then I read this WSJ article and now I’m sure I can stomach the rest of this journalism textbook, whose author seems to live in a fantasy world.