John C. Watson is a tenured associate professor tenured in the Journalism Division at American University. He brings a combination of professional experience and scholarly credentials to the classroom. A journalist for 21 years, he has a law degree and a Ph.D. His research on media law and journalism ethics has been presented at scholarly conferences and published in law reviews and refereed scholarly journals. He is the author of Journalism Ethics by Court Decree. He has conducted studies that question the ethical propriety of publishing police composite sketches of crime suspects, and weighs the merits of licensing journalists.
Headlines in early March 2023 implied Fox News mogul Rupert Murdoch had made a damning confession. He had affirmed that some of his most important journalists were reporting that the 2020 presidential election was a fraud – even though they knew they were propagating a lie. It was an admission during pretrial testimony in a […]
