New Chrome extension means never having to read what you don’t want to read
Silence of the Celebs, a new extension for Google’s Chrome Web browser, lets you “add any celebrity to the Celebrity Gag List.” Reviews have been mostly positive. As the extension’s site notes, people who are “tired of Charlie Sheen” can block his name from Twitter, the New York Times, CNN, Huffington Post, Google News, Gawker, […]
Remember the PR backlash against news about News of the World’s ethics?
With news that News Corp.’s News of the World will fold in the wake of criminal investigation involving the paper’s considerable hacking into private phone voicemail accounts, a few thoughts worthy of an ethics class discussion: Is it ever right to hack into a phone or computer system? There’s nothing new about this. (Compare what’s […]
Now that Blagojevich has been convicted, will entertainment shows steer clear of indicted celebrities and politicians?
Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich lasted four weeks in the Spring 2010 season of Celebrity Apprentice. He was fired four months before a federal jury found him guilty of lying. Last week’s conviction of former Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich on 17 criminal counts reminds us of how TV found a way to turn a […]
Seconds after tornado, photographer makes an ethical choice
Birmingham News photographer Jeff Roberts was in the path of one of the tornadoes that blew through Alabama on Wednesday, April 27. In this video, he describes what he saw and how he decided to pick up a camera and start shooting instead of “becoming part of the story.” (Columnist John Archibald describes the family’s […]
Do TV station owners have the ethical duty to not broadcast network programs they don’t think are ethical?
KSL-TV, the NBC affiliate in Salt Lake City, is owned by a corporation owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. But that doesn’t mean you’ll see all of NBC’s fare when you tune in. For years it has not shown Saturday Night Live — and this week it said it would not […]
Facebook, public relations firm caught trying to (anonymously) slam Google
The Daily Beast’s Dan Lyons and USA Today called out Facebook and its (now-former) public relations agency, Burson-Marsteller, for trying to hide its hand while asking reporters to look into negative reports about Google’s efforts at social media. When one blogger asked who was Burson-Marsteller’s client, the PR firm wouldn’t say. The PRSA Code of […]
Is it ethical to fool AP, news media to make a greater point?
A group opposed to what it calls “corporate tax cheats” and “unfair public service cuts” issued a fake press release under General Electric’s name, claiming GE the company would donate $3.2 billion to add jobs and aid the U.S. economy. It then issued its own press release, praising GE’s actions. The AP acknowledged its mistake, […]
Advertising ethics principles enter the digital age
The University of Missouri’s Institute for Advertising Ethics, in conjunction with the American Advertising Federation, has released its new Principles and Practices for Advertising Ethics. The eight principles are followed by commentary that link to the latest in law governing advertising, as well as principles of truth from journalism that guide the code. The statement […]
Time magazine shows power and privacy concerns of data mining
Joel Stein plays everyman in Time magazine’s March 10 cover story entitled Data Mining: How Companies Now Know Everything About You. He allows data mining companies to tell what they think they know about him, and the result is eerie preciseness that is both strikingly right and howlingly wrong. Companies glean this information from everyday […]