Ehtics and Information

What are some of the ethical problems faced by journalists? How are they resolved?

In today’s news world, journalists face many ethical problems. First off, they have to face the issue with obtaining information illegally then having to choose whether or not they should publish it. Also, when you are stuffing a camera in someone’s face, is that really ethical? Shouldn’t you just wait to have a sit down conversation with the person? Lastly, journalists need to know where to draw the line when they are interviewing them or writing about them—how much is too much?

So today, as you know, journalists have many ethical issues they face each day when they go out looking for a story. They need to decide whether or not it is truly ethical to publish a story and/or photos that were obtained while trespassing illegally. It is important for the public to see this story and photos, but the way it was seen was not legally so the legal power often overpowers the information side. I have seen several times, one in particular, when the New York Times obtained documents from the government illegally about their plans in the Vietnam War and the Times won the Supreme Court case because in their eye it was imperative for the public to see the information in the documents to stay informed. I believe it is unethical to publish a story and photos that were obtained illegally. I would try my hardest to gain them legally then publish the story the right way.

In addition to illegally obtaining a story, I believe it is unethical for reporters and cameramen to stuff cameras and microphones into a person’s face to get a reaction. I remember Texas Rangers pitcher Kenny Rogers pushed a cameraman down because he got into Rogers’ face with it. Rogers was fined, but I still believe it was unethical and unprofessional to stuff the camera in the athletes face just to get negative attention around Rogers and the team.

Stemming off that, I think there needs to be a line where the interviewer and/or the person who writes any sort of story follows how much is too much. Therefore, there needs to be a line that the reporter should not cross, where it is okay to ask some questions, and not others, because then it would be unethical and rude to ask some things. For example, when interviewing a Charlie Sheen let’s say, you can ask him about his drug abuse and all that, but questions about how his kids look at him now an how do you think the public thinks of you now is just rude and unethical in my opinion.