Technical Blog

In response to Vic's blog post on Journalism

Like you, I haven't given much thoughts in to the ethics of news reporting. Freedom of speech and the freedom of the press will only protect a company/entity for so much before lawyers find loopholes to exploit. Jesse mentioned that in the news business, you can get hit with both libel and slander since there are reporters and writers. I'm curious to know who gets the short end of the stick on this one, the messenger or the sender? My feeling is that the reporters will get more heat because that is the only person the audience see and they perceives those reporters as the face of that news organization.
Reporting ethically can be difficult regardless if you are given the freedom of press like our country or not. The envelope can only pushed so far. In my opinion, airing a gunshot victim with all the guts and gore is unethical and it doesn't do any good except for increasing the "shock" factor to gain higher TV ratings. I also think that much of ethics revolves around culture. For instance, our society is more susceptible to violence then to sex. In Europe, it is the opposite, parents would rather have their kids exposed to Britney Spears before they want their kids imitating James Bond.