Today we will:
- Have five minute news roundup
- Hold debate 1
- Talk about law vs ethics and truth vs accuracy and leakers
- Begin thinking about credibility of sources/anonymous sources
- Reminder: Test 1 Tuesday
Will cover all readings, lectures, case studies AND include two ethics dilemmas for you to solve. I will supply SPJ Code and Bob Steele’s 10 questions.
News:
- USA TODAY: Media trust vs Trump trust poll
- Nat Geo — 7 new planets!!
- Wash Post: Transgender bathrooms— federal guidelines revoked
- Wash Post: Milo
- Newser: Wash Post new slogan
Are laws always ethical?
Should journalists always follow the laws?
How journalists break laws (often in name of ethics)
- Defy the government
- Don’t reveal sources
- Go undercover – lie about who they are
- Test system — ABC plutonium/NYP airport security/School safety
- Protect criminals by not outing them
How journalists act illegally and unethically
- Steal information themselves via illegal means
- Plagiarism
- Fabrication
- What happens when the truth is not accurate?
- Should journalists use anonymous sources to make stories more accurate?
- Should journalists give the public all the information they have or is it ever OK to withhold information from readers? (crime victims, suicide, criminal backgrounds of victims, putting subject or community in danger, because police ask you to)
Homework:
Watch the Academy Award winning film “All the President’s Men”
Come to class with a WRITTEN LIST (to be turned in) of three to five ethical and three to five unethical tactics Woodward and Bernstein used in their reporting of the story.
If you don’t know the history of Watergate, read about it BEFORE you watch the film.
History: Watergate
