Advances in Applied Sociology 2012. Vol.2, No.3, 159-166 Published Online September 2012 in SciRes (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/aasoci) http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/aasoci.2012.23022 Copyright © 2012 SciRes. 159 Sycophancy and Objective Journalism Bonachristus Umeogu 1 , Ifeoma Ojiakor 2 1 Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria 2 Department of Mass Communication, Faculty of Social Sciences, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria Email: ojiakor99@yahoo.com Received April 28 th , 2012; revised June 2 nd , 2012; accepted June 12 th , 2012 Objective journalism is the desire and aim of every society and media house. However, such noble aspira- tion is beclouded and usurped by sycophancy and sycophantic reporting. This development denies the public the right to true information and invariably leads to loss of reputation by the media house. This paper looks at sycophancy in the Nigerian media by looking at the reasons for its unbridled spread, effects on the public, media houses, individuals and the government of the day. Keywords: Sycophancy; Ethics; Objectivity; Objective Journalism Introduction Despite the time and attention given to ethical issues, our so- ciety is still riddled with different types and manner of ethical maladies. The journalist who is a product of the society is will- ingly or unwillingly affected by the sorry situation. One of such problems is sycophancy which is chief among the ethical prob- lems in Nigeria. The issue of sycophancy is important to be addressed because it affects objective journalism as it is. Barry white, a renowned singer has one of his lyrics as “practice what you preach”. This goes a long way to resound that talk is cheap. It is one thing to know the right thing and a different ball game to do the right thing. These days, everybody knows the slogan of a free but responsible press. Good a thing that everyone knows that; but is it really practiced? Is objective reporting attainable in this era besieged by sycophantic report- ing? Every member of a democratic society has the right to know; since nobody wants to be fed with trash, the summum bonum becomes objective reporting or journalism. Overtime, the press has been riddled with all forms of ethical issues which have invariably affected what goes down to the public as news or information. Such issues include plagiarism, brown envelopism, moon lighting, and of course sycophancy. One thing that is logical is that unethical reporting results to subjective journal- ism. The question now is why is Nigerian journalism bedeviled with sycophantic reporting? What are the causes and inherent dangers of this ethical problem? Does it have any ethical im- plication for the journalist, the government and the society at large? What can be done to remedy the situation to avoid re- peating the same old story? Definition of Ethics What is ethics? For a word that occupies such a central place in communication, there abound definitions as there abound communication scholars. That notwithstanding, Omole (2000) in Okunna (2003: p. 2) defines ethics as the shared normative values, which any society holds dear and are used to judge the behaviour or performance of any member of that society. It sets out the minimum of acceptable behaviour which any member should attain to be regarded as a good ambassador… Ethics is a concept that borders on morality and conse- quences of human actions. It also recognizes the fact that man as a rational being has the ability to discern what is good or bad and in line with the approved standard of behaviour in a given society. Thiroux 1980 in (Okunna 2003) concurs by explaining that: when we speak of people as moral or ethical, we usu- ally mean that they are good people and when we speak of them as immoral or unethical, we mean that they are bad people. When we refer to certain human actions as moral, ethical, immoral or unethical, we mean they are right or wrong. Another important characteristic of ethics is that it is volun- tary in nature. That is, an individual chooses to do right or wrong. Despite associations and bodies that regulates the ac- tivities of its members; the decision to be ethical or not depends solely on the individual. That is the relativity of ethical princi- ples. According to Ozumba (2001: p. 2), ethics as a science of good conduct can hardly on its own make good men out of bad men. Its job is to instruct us on how to be good men if we wish to be. This means that the decision is all ours. However, that decision to be or not to be might collectively or individually be influenced by variables like sex, level of exposure, orientation, religious background and what have you. Contextualizing them, Okunna (2003) lists them “as cultural socialization, personality differences and situational contingen- cies”. From the vast definitions of ethics, it can be summarily de- duced that ethics is a set of moral principles or values dealing with what is good or bad. It has also been seen as that branch of knowledge that is concerned with the standards of good or bad conduct in society. Journalistic ethics, according to Okunna 2003, is that branch of philosophy which aids journalists in determining what is right to do and is ultimately concerned