Category Archives: Accountability

Journalism of a Plague Year

April 22, 2020Accountability, Compassion, Fairness, Media, Minimizing Harm, Television newsEthics, HIV/AIDS, Journalism, Ocasio-Cortes, pandemic, philosophy, Randy Shiltscbukro

Plague in Phrygia. Art Institute

Journalism of a Plague Year

By Hugh Miller

Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists

On April 3^rd, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for the 14^thCongressional district of New York, wrote in a tweet: “COVID deaths are disproportionately spiking in Black + Brown communities. Why? Because the chronic toll of redlining, environmental racism, wealth gap, etc. ARE underlying health conditions. Inequality is a comorbidity.”

The following Tuesday, April 7^th, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, stood at a podium at the White House and praised the “incredible courage and dignity and strength and activism” of the gay community’s response to the AIDS crisis. Fauci, much of whose career has been dedicated to battling HIV/AIDS, then drew a connection between the “extraordinary stigma” which then attached to the gay community, and a similar stigma and marginalization which, he argued, today was increasing the burden and death toll imposed on African-American COVID-19 sufferers, who make up a disproportionately high number of fatalities of the latter-day plague.

As a philosopher and ethicist, I’ve been reflecting on the role of my discipline in coming to grips with this new and sudden event since it first burst into the headlines in early March. As the novel virus grew from an outbreak to an epidemic and then to pandemic dimensions, and the gravity of the illness associated with it, COVID-19, became clearer, the ethical approach to it became less so, to me.

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Muzzled Scientists, Stifled Media

April 20, 2020Accountability, Accuracy, Freedom of Speech, Independence, Media, Minimizing Harm, Online Newsaccess, coronavirus, restrictions, scientists, Washington Postcbukro

Muzzled scientists, stifled media: New restrictions on speaking directly to government scientists about the coronavirus are dangerous, writes Margaret Sullivan.

“We’re now at a moment when experts must be free to share their knowledge and front-line workers must be free to tell their stories without being muzzled or threatened — and certainly without being fired,” she writes. Lives depend on it.

Coronavirus Illustrated

April 17, 2020Accountability, Accuracy, Cartoons, MediaColumbia Journalism Review, coronavirus, illustrationscbukro

Coronavirus illustrated: Steve Brodner writes about the worst takes on the virus, featuring Rush Limbaugh, Geraldo Rivera and President Trump.

Why Reporters Should Cover Trump

April 14, 2020Accountability, Accuracy, Freedom of Speech, Independence, Media, newspapers, Online News, radio, Television newsabuse, Jay Rosen, presidential briefings, Press Thinkcbukro

Why reporters should cover Trump: The president abuses journalists at his daily briefings.

Jay Rosen gives 13 reasons they should “stick around for that,” even though the president misinforms the nation.

Verify Social Media Virus News

April 13, 2020Accountability, Accuracy, Media, Minimizing Harm, Social Mediacoronavirus, hoaxes, Los Angeles Times, Social Mediacbukro

Verify Social Media Virus News: People spread hoaxes thinking they’re sharing valuable information with friends and family, writes Jessica Roy. Verify social media accounts, sites and the information, she writes.

Masking The Coronavirus

April 10, 2020Accountability, Accuracy, Independence, Media, newspapers, radio, Television news, Weighing Benefits and Harmcoronavirus reporting, editing, hospitals, images, Poynter Institute, reportingcbukro

Masking the coronavirus: Seeing is believing, writes Al Tompkins, but “hospitals are blocking journalists from documenting what it’s like inside their walls….”

Imagery from inside hospitals is needed, though “no reasonable person would suggest journalists should sneak into hospitals to grab photos.”

Pandemic Journalism

April 8, 2020Accountability, Accuracy, Media, newspapers, Online NewsColumbia Journalism Review, pandemic journalismcbukro

Pandemic journalism: “My hope is that journalism, as an industry, will stop viewing itself as an external body meant to serve the public and instead begin to see itself as a member of the public,” writes Alexandra Neason.

Better Newspaper Business Model

March 30, 2020Accountability, Media, newspapersfor-profit, New York Times, newspaper business model, non-profitcbukro

Better newspaper business model: “The time is now to make a painful but necessary shift,” writes Ben Smith. “Abandon most for-profit local newspapers, whose business model no longer works, and move as fast as possible to a national network of nimble new online newsrooms” to rescue journalists.

Journalism Stimulus Needed

March 26, 2020Accountability, Accuracy, Media, newspapers, Online News, radio, Television newsColumbia Journalism Review, democracy, Journalism stimuluscbukro

“We need a journalism stimulus,” writes Craig Aaron, saying that journalism is too important to democracy to be left to the whims of the market.

Bartman, the Ball and Ethics

March 25, 2020Accountability, Broadcast news, Case Study, Fairness, Independence, Media, Minimizing Harm, newspapers, Online News, Television news, Weighing Benefits and HarmChicago Cubs, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, minimize harm, Society of Professional Journalists code of ethicscbukro

Bartman and the ball —- NBCsports.com photo

By Casey Bukro

Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists

The coronavirus batted the 2020 major league baseball season into limbo, but stories about baseball never get old.

Here’s one about the Chicago Cubs, a seriously maligned baseball fan and journalism ethics. Like many classic tales, it’s told, retold and people argue about the details in their favorite watering holes. Sometimes the story gets better each time it’s told.

It boils down to this: Was it ethical to name a baseball fan who deflected a foul ball, possibly costing the Chicago Cubs a trip to the World Series? This question has become a staple in some journalism ethics classes. I was reminded of that when a student named Maddie contacted the Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists, asking if news organizations violated the Society of Professional Journalists code of ethics by naming that hapless fan.

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