How responsible are journalists for catching liars Lance Armstrong, Manti Te’o and others?
The world’s most famous cyclist, Lance Armstrong, lied and lied and lied, and even sued a news organization who called out his lies. (He may have even lied while backpedaling for Oprah.) Notre Dame defensive player Manti Te’o, whether he meant to or not, lied about what turned to be an imaginary girlfriend. The result […]
Don’t want to be called bad names? Then don’t go on entertainment shows, Mrs. Bachmann (or other politicians)
Yes, the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon house band should not have played Fishbone’s Lyin’ Ass Bitch when U.S. representative and GOP presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann came onto the set on November 21. Yes, NBC was right to apologize, even though Bachmann said it should have come from NBC’s president, not a vice president. She […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
Is it ethical for journalists to keep interviewing Charlie Sheen?
Jeff Jarvis of Buzzville asks whether it’s right for journalists to continue interviewing actor Charlie Sheen, calling him a mentally ill man who doesn’t need the attention: What Sheen does may be news. What his network didn’t do is also news — when he abused women, they kept him on the air to keep the […]
How student editors use ethics codes
Newly published research shows that the value of ethics codes “seems to be lost on student journalists.” Penn State’s Kirstie E. Hettinga and Marie Hardin, writing in Media Ethics magazine, compare codes of ethics hanging on college newsroom walls to signs that point to fire exits: “It’s there if they need it, but it’s not […]
Dutch reporter oversteps boundaries when interviewing 9-year-old orphan
Nov. 20, 2010 Ruben van Assouw, a 9-year-old boy and the only survivor of a plane crash in Libya, was interviewed from his hospital bed by the the Dutch daily newspaper, De Telegraaf. This is the original piece, and here is the translated copy. It was reported that Assouw couldn’t remember anything from the accident. […]