Ethical Concerns

How to Make Good Decisions

Why Ethics Matter

• Truth• Strings that come with obtaining the truth• Bottom line: Hard work!

Recent Case No. 1

Recent Case No. 2

Recent Case No. 3

One Way to Help

The seven principles of the NSPA Code of Ethics are:

Be Responsible. Be Fair. Be Honest. Be Accurate. Be Independent. Minimize Harm. Be Accountable.

There’s Also Preventive Analysis

• Who can get hurt and how?• What actions can cause harm? Which are

yours?• What about those actions make you blameworthy?• Are you willing to accept the consequences of

those actions?

Regardless, beware 5-headed monster

Concern 1: Deception

• Lying or misrepresenting yourself to obtain information

• Should you pose as a young boy online and invite potential pedophiles to meet you at a local bar (and then videotape the meeting)?

• Do you take someone else’s quotes (from a magazine) and include them without attribution?

Concern 2: Conflict of Interest• Accepting gifts or favors from

sources or promoting pet social and political causes

• Do you let a source buy you lunch?• Do you take free hot dogs at the

press table?• Do you accept free CDs from

record labels?• Do you interview your friends or

relatives?

Concern 3: Endangering Life

• Publishing information without regard to it hurting someone or their livelihood

• Do you take that call from the gunman who’s holding hostages?

• Do you expose that organization’s wrongdoings despite the likelihood that someone will lose his/her job?

Concern 4: Sourcing

• Publishing information that will burn sources• How well can you protect that source?• Which source is more believable?• When should sources be anonymous?• Which source hurts the public?• Are you more enamored with having an

unnamed source than you are with the truth?

Concern 5: Bias

• Slanting a story by manipulating facts to sway opinions

• How diverse are your sources?• What view dominates among your sources?• Do you use suggestive phrasing? • Does the story frame/theme/approach exclude

other, pertinent views or ideas?

Seeding Ethical Basics

• Utilitarian• Veil of ignorance• Golden mean• Absolutist• Antinomian• Situational

Samples of What You Can Do

• Review case studies1. Iraq2. Seattle cops• Ask for views (e.g.,

ethics survey)• Role play (e.g., p. 9,

Ethics in Action)• Policy discussions (e.g.,

pp. 14-27)