Today, we will begin a study of media ethics.
Key words: ethics, dilemma, slander, libel, plagiarism, fabrication, conflict of interest, privacy, rush to judgement.
Ethics: the branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions.
More simply put, it is the study of what is right and wrong, and whether the people committing right or wrong acts are doing so out of malice, or for noble reasons. (Is somebody doing a bad thing for a good reason?)
Example: Illegal immigration. Supporters of these people. say that people who come to the United States outside of proper channels, without getting a visa, often do so to support their families. Many are refugees from other countries who are in danger there, or cannot find work to support themselves and their children.
Opponents say these people are breaking the law and should not receive exceptions. They and their families should be deported.
Recently, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, a possible candidate for President in 2016 said that many illegal immigrants are committing, "an act of love."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/04/06/jeb-bush-many-illegal-immigrants-come-out-of-an-act-of-love/
Background -- Here are two ethical dilemmas.
dilemma: a situation requiring a choice between equally undesirable alternatives.
10 minutes: Read these scenarios and make a choice. Write why you chose your actions in a separate word document.
Dilemma 1: You are a very skilled doctor with five dying patients, each of whom needs a different organ in order to live. Unfortunately, there are no organs available to perform any of the transplants. It just so happens that you have a sixth dying patient, suffering from a fatal illness, who will die sooner than the other five if not treated. If t his sixth patient dies, you will be able to use his organs to save the other five patients. However, you have a medicine you can give to this sixth patient that will cure his illness and he won't die. Would you:
a. wait for the patient to die and then harvest his organs or,
b. save the patient even though the other patients won't get organs.
If you choose to administer the medicine, would you do so even if the medicine would not cure the patient, but would delay his death to some short-term date after which the other five have died?
Dilemma 2: Your best friend is about to be married. The ceremony will take place in one hour, but you have just seen, just before going to the wedding, that your friend's fiancee has been having an affair. If your friend marries this man, he's unlikely to be faithful, but if you tell your friend about the affair, you'll ruin her wedding. Would you, or would you not, tell your friend?
Dilemma 3: Concentration Camp: You are an inmate in a concentration camp. A sadistic guard is about to hang your son, who tried to escape, and is telling you to pull the chair out from under him.
He says that if you don't do so, he will not only kill your son who tried to escape but your other son who is innocent. You have no doubt he means what he says. What would you do?
Reviews:
Let's localize the scenario. Here's one that might happen at Eastside High
You have a classmate you don't like. They are the girlfriend of a boy you like. You start a rumor that the girl is fooling around with other boys. There is no truth to this rumor.
a. What are the consequence of this action?
b. who gets hurt?
Now, change the scenario a little bit. You are the same jealous girl who want to breakup the relationship because you like the boy. You are also a reporter for the school paper. In the yearbook class you and the girl share, you notice that she works a lot with the male teacher of the class. You start a rumor that the girl and the teacher have a relationship. You do so in a gossip column that you publish in the paper.
a. what are the consequence of your action in this scenario?
b. who gets hurt? List all the parties who get hurt.
You can see how things change when you take a scenario from your day-to-day life and put it in the press. Newspapers, web sites, TV networks and radio networks reach a massive audience. Playing fast and loose with facts can damage a lot of lives.
Watch this New York Times clip on the Richard Jewell Olympic bombing case from 1996, to see what happens when there is a "rush to judgement"
http://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000002483865/richard-jewell-the-wrong-man.html
Key words: ethics, dilemma, slander, libel, plagiarism, fabrication, conflict of interest, privacy, rush to judgement.
Ethics: the branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions.
More simply put, it is the study of what is right and wrong, and whether the people committing right or wrong acts are doing so out of malice, or for noble reasons. (Is somebody doing a bad thing for a good reason?)
Example: Illegal immigration. Supporters of these people. say that people who come to the United States outside of proper channels, without getting a visa, often do so to support their families. Many are refugees from other countries who are in danger there, or cannot find work to support themselves and their children.
Opponents say these people are breaking the law and should not receive exceptions. They and their families should be deported.
Recently, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, a possible candidate for President in 2016 said that many illegal immigrants are committing, "an act of love."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/04/06/jeb-bush-many-illegal-immigrants-come-out-of-an-act-of-love/
Background -- Here are two ethical dilemmas.
dilemma: a situation requiring a choice between equally undesirable alternatives.
10 minutes: Read these scenarios and make a choice. Write why you chose your actions in a separate word document.
Dilemma 1: You are a very skilled doctor with five dying patients, each of whom needs a different organ in order to live. Unfortunately, there are no organs available to perform any of the transplants. It just so happens that you have a sixth dying patient, suffering from a fatal illness, who will die sooner than the other five if not treated. If t his sixth patient dies, you will be able to use his organs to save the other five patients. However, you have a medicine you can give to this sixth patient that will cure his illness and he won't die. Would you:
a. wait for the patient to die and then harvest his organs or,
b. save the patient even though the other patients won't get organs.
If you choose to administer the medicine, would you do so even if the medicine would not cure the patient, but would delay his death to some short-term date after which the other five have died?
Dilemma 2: Your best friend is about to be married. The ceremony will take place in one hour, but you have just seen, just before going to the wedding, that your friend's fiancee has been having an affair. If your friend marries this man, he's unlikely to be faithful, but if you tell your friend about the affair, you'll ruin her wedding. Would you, or would you not, tell your friend?
Dilemma 3: Concentration Camp: You are an inmate in a concentration camp. A sadistic guard is about to hang your son, who tried to escape, and is telling you to pull the chair out from under him.
He says that if you don't do so, he will not only kill your son who tried to escape but your other son who is innocent. You have no doubt he means what he says. What would you do?
Reviews:
Let's localize the scenario. Here's one that might happen at Eastside High
You have a classmate you don't like. They are the girlfriend of a boy you like. You start a rumor that the girl is fooling around with other boys. There is no truth to this rumor.
a. What are the consequence of this action?
b. who gets hurt?
Now, change the scenario a little bit. You are the same jealous girl who want to breakup the relationship because you like the boy. You are also a reporter for the school paper. In the yearbook class you and the girl share, you notice that she works a lot with the male teacher of the class. You start a rumor that the girl and the teacher have a relationship. You do so in a gossip column that you publish in the paper.
a. what are the consequence of your action in this scenario?
b. who gets hurt? List all the parties who get hurt.
You can see how things change when you take a scenario from your day-to-day life and put it in the press. Newspapers, web sites, TV networks and radio networks reach a massive audience. Playing fast and loose with facts can damage a lot of lives.
Watch this New York Times clip on the Richard Jewell Olympic bombing case from 1996, to see what happens when there is a "rush to judgement"
http://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000002483865/richard-jewell-the-wrong-man.html
Let's ask the same questions we did in the Eastside case:
a. what were the consequences of the press' action?
b. Who got hurt here?
Case Study
Monday was the first anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing, an event very much like the Atlanta Olympics bombing. Two knapsack bombs were used to kill several people and wound dozens more. There was incredible pressure to find the suspects, because there was fear they would try more bombings in the city or in other big cities around Boston, like New York City.
The New York Post published a cover of two men suspected as the bombers under the headline "Bagmen." The two were quickly cleared of suspicion, but one of them has filed a libel suit against the paper:
Libel: defamation (false or unjustified damage to the reputation of another person's good character) by written or printed words, pictures, or in any form other than by spoken words or gestures.
The Post has used the same argument the Atlanta Journal Constitution did in 1996, that they were only printing the facts, and did not name the men. The two men in the photo argue otherwise, saying the photo and the headline "Bagmen" tagged them as the criminals.
Here is a link to the newspaper's front page:
http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1093069/thumbs/o-NEW-YORK-POST-BAG-MEN-facebook.jpg
A judge recently ruled in the mens' favor:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2014/03/07/judge-assails-new-york-posts-bag-men-episode-during-marathon-bombings/
The two men have also sued radio pundit Glenn Beck, who named them and suggested they were terrorist agents:
Libel: defamation by oral utterances rather than by writing.
Here is a story on the charge against Beck:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/boston-bombing-victim-sues-glenn-beck-defamation
Here is a clip of Beck making the statements in question on his radio show and over web streaming:
a. what were the consequences of the press' action?
b. Who got hurt here?
Case Study
Monday was the first anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing, an event very much like the Atlanta Olympics bombing. Two knapsack bombs were used to kill several people and wound dozens more. There was incredible pressure to find the suspects, because there was fear they would try more bombings in the city or in other big cities around Boston, like New York City.
The New York Post published a cover of two men suspected as the bombers under the headline "Bagmen." The two were quickly cleared of suspicion, but one of them has filed a libel suit against the paper:
Libel: defamation (false or unjustified damage to the reputation of another person's good character) by written or printed words, pictures, or in any form other than by spoken words or gestures.
The Post has used the same argument the Atlanta Journal Constitution did in 1996, that they were only printing the facts, and did not name the men. The two men in the photo argue otherwise, saying the photo and the headline "Bagmen" tagged them as the criminals.
Here is a link to the newspaper's front page:
http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1093069/thumbs/o-NEW-YORK-POST-BAG-MEN-facebook.jpg
A judge recently ruled in the mens' favor:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2014/03/07/judge-assails-new-york-posts-bag-men-episode-during-marathon-bombings/
The two men have also sued radio pundit Glenn Beck, who named them and suggested they were terrorist agents:
Libel: defamation by oral utterances rather than by writing.
Here is a story on the charge against Beck:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/boston-bombing-victim-sues-glenn-beck-defamation
Here is a clip of Beck making the statements in question on his radio show and over web streaming:
In the Post's case, do you think the men were harmed?
In the Beck case, do you think the men were harmed?
Final exercise: You are the writer of the Post story. Your editor and legal department tell you they think your piece is dangerous. How would you re-write the piece to ensure nobody, not you the reporter, not the subjects of the piece, or your newspaper, or the public, are left vulnerable?
In the Beck case, do you think the men were harmed?
Final exercise: You are the writer of the Post story. Your editor and legal department tell you they think your piece is dangerous. How would you re-write the piece to ensure nobody, not you the reporter, not the subjects of the piece, or your newspaper, or the public, are left vulnerable?