Steve Earle and ‘Mississippi, It’s Time:’ Why take the Lord’s name in vain when you don’t have to?
Steve Earle made a powerful statement with “Mississippi, It’s Time,” a raw and real song arguing that the Magnolia State should join Alabama and South Carolina in removing the Confederate flag. Its use of Dixie is masterful, co-opting a song now associated with racism and flipping it for an anti-racism anthem. The Southern Poverty Law […]
Does Charlie Hebdo’s Syrian satire go too far?
By Leila Beem Núñez Charlie Hebdo is no stranger to controversy. In 2006, the French satirical magazine enraged many in the Muslim world when it republished cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. In 2011, its offices were firebombed and damaged after publishing content of a similar nature. In January of this year, the consequences for its […]
It’s legal to defame a dead person, but that does not make it ethical
By Kevin Connell When Vladlen Putistin took his case to court, his claim was clear: He wanted the information rectified and he wanted compensation for the damages. In his view, he believed the journalist’s statements in her published newspaper article defamed his father, thus justifying his decision to sue. In July 2001, Putistin sued the […]
In defense of the photos of the lifeless Syrian boy
By Layton Dudley The cliché saying goes that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words.’ The question in journalism is, in regards to ethics, when should the photo do the talking? Recently, an international photo surfaced that has caused controversy within the media. The photograph depicts a lifeless Syrian boy, named Aylan, only three years […]
Journalism schools should have a standard code of ethics
By Laura Testino In Walt Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast,” the cartoon candlestick character, Lumière, leads a musical number featuring the other anthropomorphic kitchenware. Soon after the song, “Be Our Guest” begins, Lumière exclaims to “Try the grey stuff, it’s delicious!” But some journalists would do no such thing: the black and white stuff is […]
Resources to talk about the Virginia TV killings
Want to talk about the WDBJ-TV Virginia live-on-TV shootings that occurred Aug. 26, 2015? The Newseum provides an excellent set of questions and lines of thinking related to what to show and not show. Other sources: * A larger argument comes from the University of North Carolina’s Zeynep Tufekci, writing in The New York Times that […]
Loyalties and transparency: Clients wonder what ad agencies are hiding with rebates from media companies
There’s an old saying in advertising, attributed to department store magnate John Wanamaker or to carmaker Henry Ford: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” Companies that pay advertising agencies to buy media time have another worry inside one of those halves. Business Insider says a […]
76ers, Redskins and Wells Fargo: On the ethics of not calling things by names that others use
From Philadelphia comes news that the 76ers basketball team refuses to say “Wells Fargo” when referring to the arena where it plays. Wells Fargo, which bought the bank that bought the bank that made the original deal in 1996, owns naming rights until the 29-year, $40 million deal ends in 2025. But that money went […]
Opelika-Auburn News: ‘Finding a way’ to anger nearly everybody
You’re working in The Opelika-Auburn News sports department late on a deadline Saturday night. You should be celebrating in your seat, even if you don’t care who won the big game your paper will blow out in Sunday’s paper. The Auburn Tigers, the team your paper cares about, has held on to beat another Top […]