Is it ever ethical to report on a public figure’s private sexual relationships and/or preferences?
Like many of you in class last night, I felt exceedingly uncomfortable about most of the Spokesman Review’s decisions regarding their coverage of Mayor Jim West. Their decision to equate pedophilia with homosexuality is beyond justification, and there was something particularly disturbing about the innuendo–laced suggestions for headlines from news-room editors after West lost the election.
By the end of class, many of you seemed to support a policy that would say that reporting on a public figure’s private sexual preferences and/or relationships is unethical unless they are criminal.
Because I am a deep believer in the Socratic method of teaching , I thought I would throw out a few hypotheticals (some true, some fiction) for you to ponder to see if that standard works.
1. Shortly after his death in 2003, the press reports that Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina had fathered a child with his African-American maid when he was 22 years old. Sen. Thurmond was an outspoken proponent of segregation during his term as a United States Senator. Was it ethical to report on this story? Alternatively, was it unethical for the press to not report on this story until after Sen. Thurmond’s death?
2. It’s 1988, and Gary Hart is considered the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for President. Rumors begin to circulate that Hart is having an extramarital affair. In an interview that appears in the New York Times on May 3, 1987, Hart responds to the rumors by daring the press: "Follow me around. I don't care. I'm serious. If anybody wants to put a tail on me, go ahead. They'll be very bored." Three days later, reporters from the Miami Herald obtain a tip that Hart had spent a night in Bimini with a 29-year old model named Donna Rice. The reporters obtain a photograph of Rice sitting in Hart’s lap. Is it ethical or unethical to report on Hart’s relationship with Rice?
3. Two words. John Edwards.
4. You are the editor of the Boston Globe. The L.A. Times has just published a report that Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is involved in an extra-marital affair with a female body-builder. Do you publish a story about the affair? If you consider the initial L.A. Times report unethical, does the story lose its unethical taint if your paper merely reports on what the L.A. Times is reporting? Isn’t the practical effect of both stories the same thing?
5. And now for a descent into the truly absurd. Seven months after leaving office, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney discover they are deeply in love with each other and embark upon a secret love affair in the mountains of Wyoming. Miraculously, you are the first reporter to obtain proof of their secret relationship. Do you publish it?
As you go through your ethical analysis of these hypothetical situations, examine how and why you come to the conclusions that you do. Is it easier for you to find ethical justifications for publishing a story if the subjects of the stories are people you don’t like?
NB C-notes
14 years ago
1 comment:
Hi Franklin and classmates,
Franklin, the scenarios you suggest here are very different from the Frontline piece we saw on Mayor Jim West. I felt the editor of the Spokesman Review acted unethically in the West story because he went to great lengths to “trap” him, even hiring someone to act like an interested lover. The goal of the newspaper in the story certainly was not to prove that West abused his office by notifying his lover of an internship at City Hall, but instead was to try to connect West’s sexuality to pedophilia. (Despite that there was no legitimate evidence to tie him to the earlier abuses). Their paper’s motives were clearly and ethically wrong. They also failed in areas of accuracy and transparency and never gave consideration to holding off on publication.
The scenario you presented about Gary Hart was of Hart’s own doing. He invited reporters to trail him. John Edward’s extra-marital affair directly contradicts his pure political reputation. In these cases there was no witch-hunt by the press.
For better or worse, voters make decisions based on the political and private life of the candidate. Assuming truth, accuracy and confirmation all pass grade, the next consideration is context setting. In the 1960’s President Kennedy’s infidelities were not reported by a press corp that knew about his extra-marital affairs. Times have changed and today the public demands to know all. Any contemporary daily newspaper not reporting a Gary Hart or John Edwards story will certainly lose readers.
Personally, I‘d like to see less celebrity news and more real news. Recently, I was dismayed to see the Kayne West/Taylor Swift story on page 1 of the New York Times, but it was what people were talking about and wanted to read that day. It may not qualify as journalism but it was “news” and for newspapers that are barely keeping their head above water it needs to be front and center.
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