The Ethics of Ethics

Ethics.  Tricky business isn't it? For a journalist, ethics are very important. We must know the line when reporting. Journalists are meant to be the voice of the people, but what if the people have stories that they'd prefer to be a secret? Where is that line between getting the story and stealing the story?

In class, we discussed a case study: if a candidate for Prime Minister was gay but did not wish to be seen as gay, should the story continue? It would be a great interest piece and would give some positive publicity to the gay community, but would it be worth it if the candidate eventually did not win because of his sexual preference? We may show integrity and not judge the candidate by his sexual preference but the rest of the voting world may not.

A second case study: a person who was sexually abused by a serial rapist decided to share his story with a journalist, but soon after wanted to cancel the story. When denied the opportunity, he threatened to take his own life due to the fear of being found by the abuser. Let's discuss the pros and cons of running the story.
Pros:
- other people who have been sexually abused can relate to the story
- other victims may get a boost of confidence and could also share their stories
- possibly could help the people trying to find the rapist
Cons:
- the guy would kill himself. We'd lose a life. A valuable life, even if he didn't think so.
Now just think about that. If you were in that situation, what would you do? Would you sacrifice one life in order to save thousands of possible victims, or would you put that victim in a situation that results in him taking his own life in fear of being found by the criminal again?

Finally, we looked at a third case study: a man on fire was filmed and not helped. Seriously? Why would you film a man on fire? Granted, the man was protesting. He was protesting against something important and threatened to set himself on fire in order to be heard. Two journalists, watching the ordeal, began filming his protests. They never thought he'd actually do it though. When the man lit a match below himself and caught on fire, he began screaming in pain and terror begging for help. The two journalists, hopefully in shock, could do nothing but film. Finally, one of the two dropped his camera and ran to put the man out. The real shocker I found in this case study was the fact that this was a public area and this man wasn't going to protest with no one around. There was bound to be people looking on to see what he was doing. Why did they all just stand there and watch? These journalists caught a lot of flack for filming the whole thing without doing anything, when all around them were onlookers who watched as well.

Where are the ethics in ethics? Many years ago, none of the case studies we look at would be considered to be unethical. For example, ten years ago if a school child fell over and scraped their knee, a teacher could give the child a hug and send him off to nurse. Nowadays, the teacher would get fired for some type of sexual assault or something stupid like that. The teacher's method of teaching (not to mention the school's methods of hiring people) would be under question because of that one incident.

Personally, I think ethics need to be reconsidered again.