Frank Sinatra, Gay Talese, and why journalists should practice the theory of pragmatism
By Laura D. Testino In 1964, Frank Sinatra covered a Frank Loesser tune called “I Believe in You” from Loesser’s Pulitzer-snagging Broadway smash “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.” In the song, Sinatra croons, “You have the cool, clear eyes of a seeker of wisdom and truth.” Writer, journalist (and 1953 University of […]
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 […]
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 […]
In case no one told you, some things are so wrong they’re not worth spending much time on in an ethics discussion
The third paragraph in Doing Ethics in Media: Theories and Practical Applications explains why the book runs 442 pages: If ethical decision making were simply a matter of choosing between right or wrong, good or bad, this would be a very short book. However, such choices are not always black or white; they’re much more […]
How the updated SPJ code of ethics helps justify one newspaper’s stand against naming a sex-crime suspect
Making a decision about ethics sometimes means doing your own thing while everyone else is doing something else — in public. One news organization did this in reporting the arrest of a 49-year-old man charged with possession of child pornography in Calhoun County, Ala. Multiple news organizations reported information provided by the Alabama Bureau of […]
Facebook news feed emotion experiment was a failure of journalism ethics, too
News that Facebook manipulated content of nearly 700,000 users continues to make waves, and now a Democratic senator has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether the company and researchers properly notified and/or debriefed users that they were being used as experimental subjects. The 2012 experiment tested whether users posted higher levels of positive […]
Protecting innocence or seeking truth: CNN, other media decide how much to show of Miriam Carey’s child in White House car case
By Sophia Jones The death of Miriam Carey and the Oct. 3, 2013, car chase she led capitol police on that resulted in her death, was newsworthy. The fact that Carey led the car chase, not with a weapon or any other illegal substances, but with a 14-month-old child in the backseat of her car, […]
Sports Illustrated comes to Calhoun County, Alabama, with lessons in football, race and media ethics
I was a second grader at Jacksonville Elementary School in October 1972, so nobody talked to us 7-year-olds about the helmet-to-helmet hit that killed Jacksonville High’s Anthony “Speedy” Cannon on a Friday night at Wellborn High School. A decade later, as a Jacksonville High senior and sports editor of the weekly Jacksonville News, I didn’t […]
Jeff Jarvis on why ‘sponsored content,’ advertorials and other blurrings between news and ads are a bad thing
Worth a read today is Jeff Jarvis writing about the blurring between news and advertising content. He argues that advertising that looks like news content is bad because of: Inconsistency in the ethics of news organizations that do this. Conflicts of interest between advertisers and news. Brand value losses for news organizations. His bottom line: […]