This was the best text assignment we've had all year. Definitely thought-provoking; yay for philosophy!
p. 508, Ex. 1-5
1. You learn that the daughter of a local bank president has been kidnapped. The family has not been contacted by the kidnappers, and police officials ask you to keep the matter secret for fear the abductors might panic and injure the child. Describe how a deontologist, a teleologist, and a situation ethicist would make their decisions about how to handle the situation.
Deontologist: According to our text, “the absolutist journalist is concerned only with whether an event is newsworthy.” Since the kidnapping story is both timely and local, I believe that a deontologist would report the story because of their drive to cover that which is newsworthy.
Teleologist: A teleologist is concerned with the final end or consequence of reporting. In this situation, the teleologist would determine whether it is better for the public to know of the kidnapping and risk the health of the child or to keep the kidnapping a secret and possibly preserve the child’s safety. Then, the reporter would do whatever necessary to achieve the end result that he or she believed to be best.
Situation ethicist: Situation ethicists base their reporting decisions on the situation at hand. A situation ethicist would be likely to consider the current situation in depth and then make a decision after careful thought.
2. Would a travel writer ever be justified in accepting a free trip? Explain your answer by using various theories of situation ethics.
Most news organizations have rules against the acceptance of freebies. The acceptance of free goods or services poses risk that reporters will be unable to remain objective and be persuaded to write stories they would not normally write. There are several philosophies embraced by situation ethicists, but the only philosophy that would support the acceptance of free trip would be Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Self-Interest. Rand proposes ethical egoism, which she argues is healthy self-interest. She believes that whenever someone acts in his or her own best interest, everyone else is better off as well. If a journalist accepted a free trip, Rand would argue that others would benefit because the newspaper might sell more papers or people might spend money to take that trip, thus benefiting the economy.
3.You are a photographer for a newspaper. On your way back from a track meet, you see a man who looks as if he is thinking about jumping off a bridge. You have a camera with motor-drive action, which permits you to take pictures in rapid-fire sequence. Which of the following would you do? Justify your response.
C. Step out of his sight and radio to the newspaper to send police.
As a reporter, it is my job to report news, not to make it. If I were to interfere with this man and try to persuade him from jumping, he might actually jump to avoid talking to me. If I merely took photographs, and later learned that he did indeed commit suicide, I would feel partly responsible for having not made an effort to save his life. I believe the socially responsible thing to do is to contact the police, who are trained to handle situations such as this. I would be acting according to my morals, but would also regain my journalistic integrity by not stirring up a story.
4.For at least a year, on four or five occasions, reporters on your paper have heard rumors that a residence for the aged is negligent in its care of the elderly. Your editor asks you to get a job there as a janitor and report what you find. What would be your response?
Although I would want to cover this story, I would not feel comfortable lying to get a janitorial job to research it. I would be worried that posing as a janitor and misrepresenting myself could be punishable by the law. I would also be in danger if the residence was not actually negligent in their practices, and I was discovered to be working undercover. With nothing to reveal or report on against the home, charges might be brought against me for deceit. That is too great of a risk to be based on rumors alone.
5. A Christian minister is running for mayor of your city, which is a conservative, traditional community. You learn that he and his wife of 18 years has a son who was born four months after they were married. Using the Potter Box, decide whether you would release that information.
I honestly don’t know what I would do in this situation. Part of me feels that it does not need to be published. It is not newsworthy to mention the fact that the minster’s child was born out of wedlock, since I’m assuming it has nothing to do with the general scope of the article. However, the Potter Box complicates my answer because it asks journalists to “identify values” and consider not only personal values, but those of the community as well. If my paper is printed for a conservative, traditional community, I might feel inclined to present this detail to my readership. They would probably feel cheated if they were not told this and later discovered that I had known and withheld the information all along. At the same time, I feel as if including this information is not so much reporting, but gossiping or slamming a public figure. However, this figure is in the public, so the facts of his life are pretty much fair game as long as they are not contorted in any way.