Intae Park
2/26/18
'Ethics Night'
We started off with a little exercise: 'Personal Brand'
• How do you define ethics?
- Fairness
- Exposing the truth
- Giving the coverage they deserve
: There is no one universal rule for ethics.
Ethics Cases
1. Case 1: The Director’s Husband
: A director of child protection services kept her sex offender husband hidden.
• Decision: report.
• Reason: Though it happened four years ago, not reporting a sexual predator is a big deal.
Things to consider:
• any consideration to the daughter?
• the process of verifying the story: talking to Mrs. Smith?
• how would you go through the interview?
• Saying “no comment” = saying you’re guilty.
2. Case 2: Offensive Official
: A popular sheriff was in a public meeting, discussing housing female inmates. Used the term “recycle.”
• Decision: report.
• Reason: Just stating the conversation, leaving the decision to the readers.
Things to consider:
• Readers’ sensibility? They can be offended.
• explaining the quote as “disturbing”: same as writing the quote twice. Don’t need explanation.
3. Case 3: Autoerotic Asphyxiation
: A young man was found hanging from a tree. It was an accidental death by autoerotic asphyxiation.
• Decision: report.
• Reason: If you don’t report it, people would assume his death as a suicide. Already a widespread rumor. Try to be informative.
Things to consider:
• consideration to the family?
• saying “accidental” can raise more questions.
• take into account how readers would react differently in Washington D.C. and a small town
4. Case 4: Tarnished hero
: A firefighter was praised as a hero, but the cops kept the fact that he was drunk and drove to the blaze, not following captain’s orders.
• Decision: report.
• Reason: You wrote a touching story. It is your responsibility to inform the readers that the cops kept it secret.
Things to consider:
• procedures for off-duty firefighters?
• any similar incidents?
5. Case 5: FBI Director
: A former FBI Director leaked sensitive information about locking up innocent people, while he was drunk on a train.
• Decision: Not immediately run, dig in more. (Definitely run it someday.)
Things to consider:
• what if FBI says “we don’t do that”?
• how convince him to do the story?
• just run the story with what we have now?: Run it, keep following up.
6. Case 6: Fund Drive
: You reported a local family with a sick child with huge bills. A fund drive was planned. Got several more calls. Still run the following stories?
• Decision: Run both stories. But it should have uniqueness.
Things to consider:
• A large city would have a lot of requests.
• how would you tell the fourth, fifth story?
• if write one big story, what about a month after? (To the family: unique. To the readers: same story.)
• Style section: human interest. Give a particular section dedicated to these stories.
7. Case 7: New-year Baby
: Every year, you run the first baby born on a new year. This time, you found interesting information. A single mom chose to have another child, abusing the welfare system.
• Decision: Run.
Things to consider:
• edit out the quotes?: That’s what makes this story interesting. / Doesn’t matter. It’s just a new-year born baby.
• if leave out the welfare, what makes this unique?: Inherently, it’s the first baby of the year.
• give different considerations to people who are not used to doing interviews?
• covering the welfare could look like your paper could be leaning politically.
→ Every one of these is a tough call. Actual stories, with some facts made easier.
What really happened:
1. The director resigned.
2. The sheriff was popular because he said stuff like that. Knew his base, played to it.
3. Published it, making it more informative.
4. Raised a lot of questions to the cop, fire department: Procedure for off-duty personnel
5. Was on CNN, a former official was talking. Somebody alerted the official being live-tweeted what he said. Found the person, they took a picture and had a beer.
6. Flooded with calls from other families. Carved out a section and contributed it to those families. (before social media became prevalent)
7. Put the quotes in the story. The woman got harassing phone calls, moved away.
Big takeaway: These are what journalists face every day. News executives spend hours debating these.
Homework
1. Watch 2 stories by NBC4's David Culver. Come in with 2 questions you couldn't find the answers to online.
2. Write the Little Mickey press release. Practice - Bring to class (Word version)
3. Read Writing for Broadcast, Ch. 9 - 3 takeaways
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