Jon Friedman has a walk down ethics lane today, prompting Ken Auletta to come out with this distinctly non-counter-intuitive take on why ethical lapses occur. (And in the words of the song – “Stop me if you think you’ve heard this one before.”)

“Declining circulation, falling advertising revenues, and the swooning stock value of traditional news organizations, coupled with expanding consumer choices, prompts slashed newsroom budgets.

“This leaves fewer editors and fact checkers to police newsrooms. Worse, with business declining, the folks who sign our checks push for more sensational stories, more conflict, more sharp opinion – anything – to lift their news stories from the clutter. The business culture imposes itself on the journalistic culture. In the contest between the two cultures, business usually triumphs.”

But is there any evidence for a relationship between adverse business conditions and deliberate misreporting? If there is I’d like to see it.