Dan Gillmor, the director of the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship and a veteran journalist and blogger, argues in The Guardian that ghostwritten op-ed pieces are contributing to public cynicism about media.

Gillmor questions the ethics of news organizations that permit pieces to appear under the bylines of those who didn't create them. If they were students and attempted to present such work, they'd be given a failing grade, he notes.

Gillmor doesn't accept the argument that these pieces are no different than speech-written work. In this instance, he says, there is "an outright, direct lie." He believes news organizations should not agree to carry them and should recognize that doing so is a "sleight-of-hand" that diminishes trust.

He concludes: "If I'd flunk a student for doing it, why should I give a pass to the rich and powerful?"

In his latest post as public editor of the New York Times, Arthur Brisbane examines the value of an apology by one of the newsroom's columnists.

Last week Joe Nocera, relatively new as a columnist, wrote a spirited and sharply worded column on the Tea Party; when readers complained he had violated his own principled stand for civility, Nocera agreed and apologized.

Brisbane reflects on the "age of vitriol" now commanding media space and wonders where there are boundaries. He found people who were confounded by Nocera's move, but he concludes that it set a standard for his work in the future --- and with it, the work of the Times. All in all, he says, it was a good thing to do.

The head of the Center for Journalism Ethics at University of Wisconsin in Madison (disclosure: a former colleague at UBC and The Canadian Press) has distilled his academic work on changing ethics into a post for the PBS MediaShift site.

In it, Stephen Ward argues that many concepts associated with journalism ethics --- particularly the "false model" of objectivity --- need redefining in the digital age. He suggests that the "just the facts" notion of objectivity is outdated. Rather, objectivity needs to be a method by which information is gathered and an ideal that helps guide the journalist.

Ward says educators need to find ways to identify ethical guidelines and best practices in all forms of journalism, including perspectival journalism and live-blogging, to ensure that truth-telling and accuracy remain in the picture. The fear that teaching perspectival journalism means lowering standards is wrong, he suggest.

"The issue is not whether certain media formats are inherently unethical. The issue is what norms are appropriate for any specific format," he writes. "We need both comprehensive principles and specific guidelines that allow students to engage new media in a creative but responsible manner."