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By David Craig and Casey Bukro

Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists

“A thorny issue is coming up about outing priests,” said the Texas independent documentarian, who was treading new journalistic territory, where changes in public sentiment bring new questions about what is ethically correct.

The journalist was investigating cold cases, involving swirls of rumors that priests having sex in motels with other men were murdered. The priests’ bodies were found nude and bound, possibly victims of sex or hate crimes.

“We can confirm those things were happening,” said Deborah Esquenazi, an investigative filmmaker who was collaborating with the Texas Monthly Magazine in Austin, Tx. But to do that, “we have to out these individuals. And I just want to discuss the ethics of that,” she told AdviceLine.

Outing dangerous

In the past, she noted, outing a person could be dangerous to the person outed. But in the case involving priests, “all the individuals we’d be outing were deceased. They were also public figures. And nowadays, of course, with the shift in public sentiment, I believe that one of the reasons those individuals didn’t get the justice they deserved was because they were gay.

“And it could be swept under the rug because the church wanted to use sanctuary laws in order to not have these priests outed.” Sanctuary laws refer to the history and traditional right for a consecrated church building to offer refuge, protecting individuals from pursuit and arrest by secular authorities, historically for crimes.

This case involved layers of sensitive questions, past and present, and a documentarian with strong feelings about the story. “I am personally a lesbian and do not believe that outing should ever be considered a problem, because I don’t think there is anything wrong with being gay,” Esquenazi said.

Shifting conversation

She added: “I believe we should be shifting the conversation that outing should never be considered disgraceful. In fact, we could out people and be proud of such a thing.”

Esquenazi’s beliefs tend to challenge the long-time hesitation by journalists to discuss people’s sexual orientation — unless they clearly are open to that based on privacy concerns –and the decision of some gay people not to be out if that is their choice.

This bundle of complexities landed in the lap of AdviceLine advisor David Craig, Presidential Professor and Gaylord chair, Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Oklahoma.

Ethical conclusion

In discussing the case with the reporter, Craig’s mission was to help the journalist arrive at the most ethical course of action, guided by ethics standards, such as the Society of Professional Journalists code of ethics,

Naming principles in the SPJ code, Craig described advice he gave to the reporter and her reaction:

1. Regarding seek truth and report it – Is the piece of truth that the priests were gay important to the story? Why or why not? She said she thinks that’s the fundamental reason they didn’t get justice. She said there is reason to believe sanctuary laws were not used as a “sacrament” but as a “shield.”
2. Regarding minimizing harm – Is there anyone who might be harmed by the disclosure that the priests were gay, such as family members embarrassed to have this disclosed? She said there were few next of kin (families) and there’s no one where she thinks there would be harm.
3. Regarding be accountable and transparent – Is there any opportunity within the story or in ancillary material to explain the decision to out these priests if you do that? She said that it’s possible she could narrate something or could write an op-ed in a magazine working with her.

“She also brought up privacy concerns and whether these would still be relevant if they were murdered,” Craig wrote in his report on this case. “I agreed that saying the priests were gay is relevant, and I noted it would be almost impossible to tell the story without saying that.”

Critique sessions

The AdviceLine team of advisors meets periodically to discuss and critique case reports in an effort to be sure advice given to journalists is helpful and accurate. Presenting the case to the other advisors, Craig said:

“She is trying to approach this in a measured way to the specific work she does. Should outing be considered in her reporting? What to do seemed clear in this case. There was no way to report the story without saying the priests were gay. She was thinking about harm. She wasn’t concerned about anyone being harmed” by her reporting.

Craig and the filmmaker discussed ways to articulate the sensitive issues in the story and the reporter said they would be mentioned in the film. As for the ethics implications, “she wanted to be comfortable in what she did and how she did it.”

Being gay

David Ozar, an AdviceLine advisor and former professor of social and professional ethics at Loyola University Chicago, asked the question “is it okay to out people?” He knew a gay couple who preferred to keep that part of their relationship quiet.

“That aspect raised strong objections to outing,” he said. “I doubt you would be surprised today that some priests are gay.” Ozar supported what the filmmaker was attempting to do, “but it must be carefully thought out.” A key question, he added, is “should we be identifying these people who are likely to be harmed? Visual arts has its own set of ethical issues.”

Hugh Miller, also an AdviceLine Advisor who formerly taught ethics and business ethics at Loyola University Chicago, argued that “there should neither be absolute bans on publishing facts that might ‘out’ a person as being gay, nor absolute imperatives to publish such facts. Journalists must make a judgment call each time, balancing the public’s right to know against the stricture to minimize harm.”

Miller’s comments highlight a common element of ethical deliberation that AdviceLine advisors bring to their discussions with callers and one another: Careful ethical decisions usually involve considering more than one principle and weighing their importance in the situation — here, for example, the importance of the truth being told versus the harm that it might bring.

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The Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists was founded in 2001 by the Chicago Headline Club (Chicago professional chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists) and Loyola University Chicago Center for Ethics and Social Justice. It partnered with the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in 2013. It is a free service.

Professional journalists are invited to contact the Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists for guidance on ethics. Call 866-DILEMMA or ethicsadvicelineforjournalists.org.