One of my regular stops along the internet trail is the Wall Street Journal's "Best of the Web" feature with James Taranto where I find such nuggets as this one:"Training to remind staff about the importance of telling viewers the truth will cost the BBC more than £1 million [$2 million] in staff time and expenses," reports London's Times:
About 17,000 BBC staff have to attend a two-hour course, in which employees are invited to discuss where the line should be drawn between artifice and deception in the wake of a series of scandals. . . .
Mark Thompson, the Director-General, introduced the scheme after the corporation admitted a series of faked broadcasts, including made-up winners to phone-ins for Children in Need and Comic Relief and a misleading edit of a promotional video for a documentary about the Queen.
(Comments Taranto) The problem with this exercise is that knowing "where the line should be drawn between artifice and deception" is a question of technique, something quite different from basic integrity. If you know where the line is, you can use that knowledge to make sure you avoid honest mistakes that might take you over the line--or you can use it to make sure you don't cross the line while deliberately venturing as close to it as possible.
