Journalism ethics, 101

There was a short discussion of journalism ethics in Friday's API workshop at Temple, and it basically went like this: Ethics are well and good when you're making a lot of money, but when you've got to pay the bills, you can't be worrying about the finer points of such esoteric concerns.

I didn't respond at the time. It was another presenter's segment, and I was a bit taken aback. But I thought about it in the taxi to the airport, and I just want to make this statement -- to students, to journalists, to anyone who cares about such things:

Ethics exist to save your soul.

This is the truth that I experienced: The people who make money on your work may not care about ethics, but on the day that something goes wrong, they will opine about ethics as they toss you casually under the bus.

Caring about ethics and living by your principles will not help your career if you work in a corrupt field. But I can honestly say that I don't regret a single sacrifice I ever made for an ethical principle. On the other hand, my little compromises -- even the ones that turned out OK -- bug me to this day.

In the movie Rob Roy, the protagonist says that "honor is the gift a man gives himself." Ethics is our refusal to be less than what we understand to be right. It concerns how we treat others, but it is really about how we define ourselves.

Ethical behavior is like any other human dilemma. One must act out of love or one must act out of fear. There is no other choice.

Choose wisely.

Comments

[Pam]

'Ethics is our refusal to be less than what we understand to be right.'

I am so with you on this.

Ethics is a personal choice. At some point I always tell my students that will have to decide what kind of scientist they want to be: one that exploits others for gain...or not. And I tell them that this decision will define them.

Thanks for this.