AI Born with Warnings

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By Casey Bukro

Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists

Like nuclear power, artificial intelligence is described as a threat to humanity.

A difference is that the atomic bomb was intentionally invented as a weapon of mass destruction.

For some, artificial intelligence (AI) seems more like a technology that stealthily places a suffocating pillow over the face of sleeping humanity, causing extinction. AI development could lead to machines that think for themselves, and there lies the problem.

Warnings sounded

Warnings are sounded repeatedly, most recently by the Bletchley Declaration on Artificial Intelligence Safety on Nov. 1-2, 2023, a new global effort to unlock the benefits of the new technology by ensuring it remains safe.

At the two-day summit in England, 28 governments, including the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union and China, signed the declaration acknowledging the potentially catastrophic risks posed by artificial intelligence.

The warning seems well-timed, since 2024 is expected to be a transformative year for AI. It is the year, predicts The Economist magazine, that “generative AI will go mainstream.”

Year of experimentation

Large companies spent much of 2023 experimenting with the new technology, while venture-capital investors poured some $36 billion into the new invention. That laid the foundation for what is expected next.

“In 2024 expect companies outside the technology sector to start adopting generative AI with the aim of cutting costs and boosting productivity,” The Economist, a Britain-based publication, predicted.

For some, this is unsettling.

Business leaders, technologists and AI experts are divided on whether the technology will serve as a “renaissance” for humanity or the source of its downfall, according to Fortune Magazine.

At a summit for chief executive officers in June, 42 percent of them said they believe AI “has the potential to destroy humanity within the next five to 10 years.” Fortune added that one AI “godfather” considered such an existential threat “preposterously ridiculous.”

Science fiction

The Washington Post reported similar findings: “Prominent tech leaders are warning that artificial intelligence would take over. Other researchers and executives say that’s science fiction.”

Why should we fear AI?

Among the scenarios postulated is that self-governing AI robots designed to tend to human needs might decide that extermination is the most logical solution to ending human tendencies to wage war. An autonomous machine might think humans are routinely killing themselves in vast numbers anyway. To end such suffering, the machine might decide to copy human behavior. Destroy them for their own good.

Putting a humorous spin on it, a cartoon shows a robot telling a man: “The good news is I have discovered inefficiencies. The bad news is that you’re one of them.”

A conundrum

At the root of this conundrum is trying to think like AI robots of the future.

At the British AI safety summit at Bletchley Park, tech billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk took a stab at describing the AI future.

“We should be quite concerned” about Terminator-style humanoid robots that “can follow you anywhere. If a robot can follow you anywhere, what if they get a software update one day, and they’re not so friendly anymore?”

Musk added: “There will come a point where no job is needed – you can have a job if you want for personal satisfaction.” He believes one of the challenges of the future will be how to find meaning in life in a world where jobs are unnecessary. In that way, AI will be “the most disruptive force in history.”

Musk made the remarks while being interviewed by British prime minister Rishi Sunak, who said that AI technology could pose a risk “on a scale like pandemics and nuclear war.” That is why, said Sunak, global leaders have “a responsibility to act to take the steps to protect people.”

Full public disclosure

Nuclear power was unleashed upon the world largely in wartime secrecy.  Artificial intelligence is different in that it appears to be getting full disclosure through international public meetings while still in its infancy. The concept is so new, Associated Press added “generative artificial intelligence” and 10 key AI terms to its stylebook on Aug. 17, 2023.

The role of journalists has never been more important. They have the responsibility to “boldly tell the story of the diversity and magnitude of the human experience,” according to the Society of Professional Journalists code of ethics. And that includes keeping an eye on emerging technology.

The challenge of informing the public of mind-boggling AI technology, which could decide the future welfare of human populations, comes at a tumultuous time in world history.

Journalists already are covering two world wars – one between Ukraine and Russia, and the other between Israel and Hamas. The coming U.S. presidential election finds the country politically fragmented and violently divided.

Weakened mass media

These challenges to keep the public more informed about what affects their lives comes at a time when U.S. mass media are weakened by downsizing and staff cuts. The Medill School of Journalism reports that since 2005, the country has lost more than one-fourth of its newspapers and is on track to lose a third by 2025.

Now artificial intelligence must be added to issues demanding journalism’s attention. This is no relatively simple story, like covering fires or the police beat. Artificial intelligence is a story that will require reportorial skill involving business, economics, the environment, health care and government regulations. And it must be done ethically.

It is a challenge already recognized by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which joined with 16 journalism organizations from around the world to forge a landmark ethical framework for covering the transformative technology.

Paris Charter

The Paris Charter on AI in Journalism was finalized in November during the Paris Peace Forum, which provides guidelines for responsible journalism practices.

“The fast evolution of artificial intelligence presents new challenges and opportunities,” said Gerard Ryle, ICIJ executive director. “It has unlocked innovative avenues for analyzing data and conducting investigations. But we know that unethical use of these technologies can compromise the very integrity of news.”

The 10-point charter states: “The social role of journalism and media outlets – serving as trustworthy intermediaries for society and individuals – is a cornerstone of democracy and enhances the right to information for all.” Artificial intelligence can assist media in fulfilling their roles, says the charter, “but only if they are used transparently, fairly and responsibly in an editorial environment that staunchly upholds journalistic ethics.”

Among the 10 principles, media outlets are told “they are liable and accountable for every piece of content they publish.” Human decision-making must remain central to long-term strategies and daily editorial choices. Media outlets also must guarantee the authenticity of published content.

“As essential guardians of the right to information, journalists, media outlets and journalism support groups should play an active role in the governance of AI systems,” the Paris Charter states.

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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.

Ethics of Buying Cookies

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By Casey Bukro

Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists

‘Tis the season for – among other things – generosity.

Appeals come from charities, emergency services, environment and animal welfare groups – like The Salvation Army, the Sierra Club, the Anti-Cruelty Society or Meals on Wheels, just to name a few among hundreds.

But should journalists contribute to them, especially if they write about such organizations? The Society of Professional Journalists code of ethics warns journalists to “avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived. Disclose unavoidable conflicts.”

A photojournalist contacted AdviceLine, saying “when I started as a freelance photojournalist for a major metro daily 30 years ago, it was drilled into my head by an editor that we can’t support any causes.” She quoted the editor, who said: “If a Girl Scout comes to your door with a fundraiser, you can’t give them any money.”

“I stayed true to this for 30 years,” said the photojournalist. “I don’t sign any petitions, I don’t opinionate on Facebook, I don’t give any money to any organizations or fundraisers.”

But she’s having some doubts after refusing to give one of her photos to a city animal shelter for a public information campaign warning people against locking pets in hot cars. “I’m not sure I did the right thing,” she said, especially since animal welfare advocates were “totally put off” by her refusal.

Can generosity be unethical? David Ozar, the AdviceLine ethics expert who took the query, admits he pondered the question for several days before contacting the photojournalist. Even ethics experts agonize over ethics.

“I can easily imagine an editor, especially 30 years ago, simplifying the ethics of conflicts of interest in the way he or she did back then,” said Ozar, acknowledging what the SPJ ethics code says. “But I have been teaching that this way of stating how to respond ethically when interests conflict is mistaken because it oversimplifies things far too much.

“The problem is that everyone has conflicting interests all the time and simply saying ‘avoid them’ is not helpful. Anyone who works for pay or even pro bono but gets credit for it somehow (or just satisfaction) has an interest in the pay/credit/satisfaction as well as in doing the work according to relevant standards. We could not function if that were not true. So the idea of ‘simply avoiding’ is not helpful.

“The real ethical question is to ask whether the ‘other interests’ are likely to outweigh (or are already doing so) the interests of the people we as professionals are supposed to be serving, which in journalism is our audience (readers, viewers, etc.). Is the ‘other interest’ likely to cause us to not serve them as well as we ought? For example, the reporter holds back facts that are really important to the readers/viewers because they will reflect badly on the reporter’s brother-in-law or, worse yet, is the ‘other interest’ those whom we as professionals serve” and might be harmed?

Ozar also suggests transparency allows journalists to support good causes by telling readers and viewers of a decision to support a cause, warning them “to be cautious about our professional judgments in such situations.”

“Buying Girl Scout cookies is, in my view, a very simple case in which, at most, transparency would be fully adequate ethically,” but relevant “only if you were reporting on the Girl Scouts.”

Ozar agrees journalists must avoid the appearance of impropriety, since “journalism is in the integrity business and things that might make reporters or their organizations or the journalism profession look biased, unfair, half-hearted about the truth, etc., are certainly things that need careful examination.”

Ozar does not stop there. Other questions for consideration are: What are readers/viewers likely to think about the matter? How likely are they to think negatively? And which readers/viewers are likely to think that way?

The public needs to know if journalists are acting without integrity, which is more important than the simple act of buying Girl Scout cookies.

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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.

Halloween Display Shock

Case Study

ClarksvilleNOW image

By Casey Bukro

Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists

A Halloween display depicting a lynching of three figures hanging from a tree near Clarksville, Tenn., posed one of the most disturbing and sensitive ethics cases handled by the Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists.

The origins of Halloween dates back 2,000 years to a Celtic festival marking the end of summer and the start of winter, when it was believed ghosts of the dead returned to earth and caused trouble.

The racist Halloween display in Clarksville was causing serious trouble for Rob Selkow, site manager and news director for ClarksvilleNOW, a digital newspaper/news website affiliated with six radio stations serving middle Tennessee and southern Kentucky.

A passerby took a cell phone photo of the hanging scene in a residential area of the Fort Campbell U.S. Army base and sent it to the newspaper.

A startling scene

It showed three blood-spattered figures with black heads hanging from a tree, their hands tied behind their backs – a male, a female and a child.

“What happened,” recalls Selkow, “I got the photo on a smart phone. It looked like a scene out of (the movie) ‘Mississippi Burning,’ with “black figures being hanged.”

Selkow’s first thought was, “we needed confirmation,” and he called the Army base public affairs office.

Public Information Officer Brendalyn Carpenter said her office was notified of a Halloween display that was “offensive in nature” and authorities were sent to investigate. The homeowner on the Army base was informed of community concerns and he removed the display, with apologies.

Army values

“Displays of an offensive nature are not reflective of Army values and the family-friendly environment provided for employees and residents of the Fort Campbell community,” Carpenter said.

With that confirmation, ClarksvilleNOW published the photo, which went viral. It was seen nationwide.

It was “the most powerful image we ever published,” said Selkow, and the biggest story for paid use. “That was the first one we got that had legs.”

But that is not the end of the story.

A soldier calls

The resident who put up the Halloween display, a soldier, called Selkow, insisting on the removal of the controversial photo from the ClarksvilleNOW website.

“You need to take that down; there was nothing racial to that,” the soldier demanded.

“I said, we’d be happy to discuss it,” answered Selkow, but the soldier would discuss it no further. “He just wanted us to take it down. The Army post was not happy with it. It does not make them look good.”

The setting

This is a good time to step back and consider the setting in which the furor over the Halloween effigies happened. Stories do not happen in a vacuum. History sometimes plays an unseen role in today’s events. The Clarksville area has a turbulent and tragic history.

The Fort Campbell Army base covers 102,414 acres straddling the Kentucky-Tennessee border between Hopkinsville, Kentucky and Clarksville, Tennessee. It is home to the 101st Airborne Division and roughly 2,500 officers and 45,000 enlisted personnel. 

Started in 1942, Fort Campbell is about 10 miles from downtown Clarksville. Troops from Fort Campbell have deployed in every military campaign since the post was created.

Named for war hero

Clarksville was founded in 1785 and named for Gen. George Rogers Clark, frontier fighter and Revolutionary War hero, and brother of William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

By the start of the Civil War, planters in the area depended on enslaved African American workers to grow tobacco, one of the major commodity crops. In 1861, Clarksville and Montgomery county voted unanimously for Tennessee to secede and join the Confederate States of America.

Fighting for the Confederacy, Clarksville lost a large part of its male population and many Clarksville men became Union prisoners of war.

Confederate army camps

The state was home to three Confederate States army camps.

Neighboring Hopkinsville also supported the Confederacy, and in Civil War battles was occupied at least half a dozen times by Confederate and Union forces.

Tennessee once was heavily inhabited by native Americans. But native populations were forcibly moved to the south and west. From 1838 to 1839, nearly 17,000 Cherokees were forced to march from “emigration depots” in Eastern Tennessee to Indian Territory west of Arkansas. This became known as “The Trail of Tears.” An estimated 4,000 Cherokees died during the eviction march.

Tobacco growers

By the 1900s, Tennessee tobacco growers were fighting among themselves in what became known as the “Black Patch Tobacco Wars.” A planters’ protective association of Kentucky and Tennessee imposed a boycott on tobacco sales to drive prices up. An organization known as the “Night Riders” punished farmers who tried to skirt the boycott and sell their tobacco secretly, burning down barns and destroying tobacco fields to terrorize farmers and tobacco brokers into submission.

The official motto of Tennessee is “Agriculture and Commerce.” Its unofficial nickname is “The Volunteer State,” stemming from the War of 1812 when many Tennessee men answered the governor’s call to enlist.

Rigors of the tobacco trade, Civil War battles, southern sympathies and training for wars all mark this part of America.

Take it down

But history was not foremost in Selkow’s mind. The soldier’s pleas to take down that embarrassing photo nagged at the news director. He wondered what the fairest and most ethical thing to do would be?

So he called AdviceLine and spoke to Hugh Miller, an experienced AdviceLine advisor.

After viewing the photo, Miller read the story that appeared with it. Miller “went line-by-line with me and checked it for fairness,” said Selkow. The story carried two bylines, his and fellow reporter Nicole June.

AdviceLine report

Adviceline keeps reports on every call or inquiry it gets for ethics advice. Here is what Miller wrote in his report:

“We discussed the issue of editing a story already published. In general, this is a bad idea, I argued. Permitting it opens all kinds of doors to amending a public record, which makes those records not facts but completely fungible containers. The time to decide what goes in a story is before one publishes it. If it needs emendation later, publish a correction.”

The photo had been cropped to focus on the display and exclude details showing the location of the house as much as possible. Miller argued against “ex-post-facto manipulation of an image,” which “should not be done without informing the reader.”

Photo cropped

On that point, Selkow responded: “We cropped the photo to make it so someone would not know whose home it was. I know you are not supposed to crop things, but I would do it again.”

Back to Miller’s report: “Next, we discussed harm to the family. The Society of Professional Journalists code of ethics asks us to ‘recognize that private people have a greater right to control information about themselves than do public officials and others who seek power, influence or attention. Only an overriding public need can justify intrusion into anyone’s privacy.’

“But clearly, this display was meant to draw attention. And the arguably racist appearance of such a display, and on the grounds of a military base, was clearly a matter for public attention. Given this, was the story causing the family undue or uncalled-for harm? The language of the article was neutral and fairly objective, hardly incitatory. The reporters agreed. We decided that, if they wanted to deal with the issue of the family’s harassment, the family should be approached for a follow-up story, and the base public affairs office asked for comment.”

Photo stays

Selkow did not take down the photo.

“It was over and done. Nothing was done after the (soldier’s) call. We knew we were not going to take it down. It was going to stay put.”

After talking with Miller, said Selkow, “I was able to stand firm on the story and know I was acting ethically and responsibly in regard to the person whose home was in the photo and gave them every chance to respond and talk to us.”

Since the soldier would not discuss his motives for putting up the display, said Selkow, “my hands were tied.” Though he admitted to “a queasy feeling when it strikes you how your work is affecting people’s lives. In that instance, it affirmed the journalistic decision that we made and instructive in a number of ways to deal with sensitive stories.”

Advice helpful

Contacting AdviceLine “was very helpful to me that day,” Selkow added, and pointed out that he cites the tricky Halloween display event when speaking to journalism students. “I bring it up as a case study.”

ClarksvilleNOW is owned by Saga Communications, Inc., a broadcast company with properties in 27 mid-size markets.

The Halloween display story touched off a vigorous debate in the online comment section, including remarks about racism and slavery. The Clarksvillenow.com website covers a population of about 200,000.

AdviceLine first reported on the Clarksville story in 2016. Since then, it has become an example in an issue of growing interest: Removing archived online stories, either because they are embarrassing or circumstances changed over time. That could include a long-ago arrest or a divorce that changes somebody’s marital status. People sometimes want history erased.

As Miller pointed out, journalists are historians who leave accurate records of local and global events. Just because it is technically possible to delete parts of this online history does not mean journalists should.

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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.

Fracking News Rejected

Case Study

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By Casey Bukro

Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists

Fracking, the controversial process of forcing oil and natural gas from the Earth, was added to the tumultuous history of Southern Illinois, a land known as “Little Egypt.”

Journalists joined a long list of combatants going back more than a century when a publisher hung a sign in his newspaper’s window saying: “No anti-fracking info welcome. If you have a problem, see my lawyer.”

Fracking was coming fast to the rural county where the newspaper is located as a gas company bought up mineral rights in the area. The publisher was feeling pressure from businesses that stand to benefit financially from the gas production business.

Both sides debated

The publisher decided that his paper, and a sister paper, would not accept articles or material from groups that oppose fracking for environmental reasons. Prior to that decision, both newspapers published articles for several weeks on both sides of the debate about fracking.

Then came the sign in the window. It was too much for a freelance writer working for one of the newspapers, who contacted AdviceLine and took action of her own.

“I resigned from writing my regular human interest column in protest because I think this is a violation of journalism ethics; but I wanted to get the judgment of some other people who know about this,” the journalist told David Ozar, the AdviceLine advisor.

Stands by standards

No doubt, the freelance writer stands with the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics, which urged journalists to seek truth and report it, and to recognize a special obligation to serve as watchdogs over public affairs without favoring special interest groups.

The final article the freelancer wrote for her newspaper explained why she was resigning, and the publisher agreed to publish it. The freelancer also allowed AdviceLine to report details of the case for educational purposes.

This episode emerged in an area known for bloody feuds, gun battles with rivals and authorities, and a distinct southern flavor inherited from its earliest settlers who came from America’s hilly backcountry in the southeast. Although Illinois was an anti-slavery state, some Southern Illinoisians owned slaves and fought for the confederacy in the Civil War. They are culturally aligned with Western Kentucky, Southwestern Indiana and West Tennessee – where people all speak with similar Southern accents.

Towns boast of “old fashioned southern hospitality,” inviting visitors to “come experience our scenic beauty and enjoy the peace and tranquility of our small town.”

Little Egypt

The region got its name, “Little Egypt,” when early settlers compared the bountiful Mississippi River with the Nile and ancient Indian mounds in the area, like the Cahokia Mounds, to the Egyptian pyramids. The earliest inhabitants of Illinois arrived around 12,000 BC.

Once the wealthiest part of the state, and earliest to be settled, Illinois fell on hard times in a series of steps that transformed the region.

Vast tracts of forests covered southern Illinois, before they were clearcut to make way for farms. Forty-two percent of Illinois once was covered with forest. Today, about 10 percent is left.

The trees were seen as obstacles to be swept away. A 1818 booklet said: “To travel day after day, among trees of a hundred feet high, without a glimpse of the surrounding country, is oppressive to a degree…”

Forty acres of land sold for $5, fueling a land rush. In the early 1800s, 99 percent of the men in southern Illinois were farmers. Farming grew swiftly in the region and peaked arounder 1900, when dramatic crop failures led to severe economic hardship for farm families. 

Century of farming

“The general region has been farmed for 100 years and much of the farm soil is worn out,” said a U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service report. “Many of the farms have been abandoned on account of worn out soil and erosion. A large percentage of the row crops are on soil which should not have been cleared of timber. It was suitable only for tree crops. Practically the whole region has been logged from one to ten times.” That also led to catastrophic floods.

Log houses from that time still are scattered along backcountry roads, although stone chimneys often are all that remain.

Coal mining next took its toll on the land in the region.

Goaded by conservationists, state and federal government officials moved to reclaim what became known as “the wastelands of Illinois.”

In 1931, the Illinois General Assembly passed an act inviting the federal government to establish a national forest in the state, in addition to one created in 1925.

A planted forest

This led to the 280,000-acre Shawnee National Forest in 1939, much of it exhausted farmland. It includes the Ozark and Shawnee Hills of southern Illinois and covers parts of nine Illinois counties. Illinois cities in or near the area are Carbondale, Marion and Cairo.

Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, the Civilian Conservation Corps planted pine trees to prevent erosion and help rebuild the soil, although the region includes hardwood trees and other plants and animals typical of the area. 

Through the 1980s and 1990s, the region was swept by more conflict as local, regional and national environment groups campaigned for the preservation and expansion of Shawnee National Forest and a wise use management plan.

The newspaper publisher who wanted no more information about fracking seemed to be carrying on a long tradition in southern Illinois of combative disagreement.

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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.

Missing Person Reports

Case Study

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By Casey Bukro

Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists

One of the most common stories a reporter encounters is the missing person report.

Though it appears simple, such reports are fraught with peril. Relatives are distraught, urging reporters and police to act fast so the public can help search for a loved one. Journalists sometimes are accused of dragging their feet with the passage of time, or accused of bias for reporting some missing cases and not others.

These cases can become highly emotional, and seen as a matter of survival for the missing person.

Missing person defined

A missing person is defined as a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed.

More than 600,000 people go missing in the U.S. every year, according to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons database. That’s about 1,600 every day. Another 4,400 unidentified bodies are recovered every year. Just trying to decide which of these cases to cover is part of a reporter’s dilemma. There are so many of them.

The United States has what may be the world’s highest number of missing persons. By far the most common reason a person is reported missing is kidnapping, particularly of children under the age of six. The vast majority of missing persons cases are resolved.

Managing editor calls

AdviceLine got involved in such a case when the managing editor of a New York State daily newspaper called for ethics guidance.

A 23-year-old woman was last seen in a hotel, but family members lost contact with her over the weekend and considered her missing. Her father posted information about her disappearance on his Facebook page. A reporter interviewed him.

“He told us that she had been on anxiety medications,” said the managing editor, “and had exhibited bizarre behavior during a Skype phone call.” The father also said he spoke with his daughter’s best friend, who said the missing woman was off her medications.

Some reservations

“We had some reservations about publishing all this information about her, but we went ahead and published it anyway,” said the managing editor. The missing woman was found a few hours after the print edition hit the street.

This is usually the reason editors hesitate to go to print too soon with missing person reports. As luck would have it, the missing person turns up shortly after her name appears in print. Complications ensue.

“Subsequently,” said the managing editor, “we received a phone call from the young woman’s best friend, in which she claimed she had communicated with her friend’s father in confidence, and would not have spoken so freely had she known that her statements would find their way into print.” 

Second thoughts

She said her friend, the formerly missing young woman, would be greatly upset to see such private information about herself made public, and that it might do her some harm. The caller asked the managing editor to redact the online story to remove references to the missing woman’s medical condition and what the friend had told the woman’s father.

The managing editor asked AdviceLine: “Do we let the record stand? Or do we redact the online story in some way?”

In his written report on the case, Hugh Miller, the AdviceLine advisor, wrote: “We spoke at some length about the conflict between refusal to alter an already-published story and the ‘minimize harm’ issues raised by the case. The most troubling bit had to do with the communication of the woman’s best friend to her father being made public. But the whole question of her privacy, particularly regarding sensitive personal medical information, was an important one.

Private individual

“She is a private individual, with a greater presumptive right to privacy and consideration of that privacy from journalists. Future employers doing an internet search for her name, for example, might come up with the story in its unedited form, and it might raise unnecessary red flags for her.

“The issue is: Does she have a particularly strong case for special consideration here? Would the public be harmed if the information about her medical condition were to be deleted? Did it really need to know that information at the time the story was first issued? We did not come to a decisive conclusion.”

The managing editor was left to make up his mind. “But our conversation served to highlight the ‘minimize harm’ issues in the case,” wrote Miller.

What would you do, if you were the managing editor? What is the least damaging way to handle this case, the least damaging to the formerly missing woman and the least damaging to the newspaper’s reputation?

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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.

Church Leader Accused

Case Study

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By Casey Bukro

Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists

Stories involving children who allegedly are sexually molested by church leaders are among the most sensitive and emotionally charged that confront journalists.

That was the kind of story a California reporter was covering, and he called AdviceLine for some guidance. He was covering the trial of a church youth leader accused of having a sexual relationship with a boy.

The boy is now 18, but was younger at the time of the alleged relationship. He is identified as John Doe in court, but his mother, the first witness in the case, is using her full name. The reporter wants to know whether to print her name, thereby indirectly naming the boy. They live in a small town. The reporter is concerned about the potential harm to the boy from being identified.

“I brought up the Society of Professional Journalists ethics code, in particular pointing to the relevance of seeking truth versus minimizing harm,” said David Craig, the AdviceLine ethics expert who handled the call from the reporter. “I asked if the news organization has any policies or precedents that are relevant?” The reporter said there were none.

“I also asked about whether any other news organizations were reporting on this (not that this should decide it, but it might be relevant.) He didn’t know of any other outlets, at least mainstream ones. I also asked him whether not using the name would create any difficult precedents if other people in sensitive legal situations want their name left out of stories – trying to think of a counter-argument in favor of using the name.”

Craig consulted with another member of the AdviceLine team to get a second opinion on this since the boy is now at the legal age of an adult and his mother is allowing herself to be named. The second team member agreed with Craig’s inclination to err on the side of caution since there seemed to be no compelling reason to identify the youth. Even though he is 18, he is still young and warrants some additional protection.

“That’s in keeping with what the SPJ code and ethics scholars would say about being sensitive to vulnerable parties, including young people,” said Craig. When he called the reporter, Craig learned that the reporter consulted further with his editor and they had come to the same conclusion.

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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.

Slipping Advertiser in Story

Case Study

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By Casey Bukro

Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists

It’s generally recognized that keeping the news side of a media company separate from the business side is the ethical way to do business.

The Society of Professional Journalists code of ethics is very specific on that point: “Deny favored  treatment to advertisers, donors or any other special interests, and resist internal and external pressure to influence coverage.”

Yet AdviceLine occasionally  gets calls or emails from journalists worried that their bosses are crossing that bright line.

One of those callers was an online editor working for a trade publication.

“She wrote a brief item that drew a complaint from sales staff because an advertiser was not mentioned,” wrote David Craig in his case report. “She said her editor is pressuring her to add information about the advertiser even though she does not think it fits with the original story. She was looking for confirmation that this is an ethical problem and trying to decide how to respond.”

This editor is like other journalists who contact AdviceLine: She has a hunch she has an ethics problem and wants confirmation to be sure. And like others, she wants guidance on how to tell her bosses they are straying from good ethical practices – a very delicate situation.

“We talked about the SPJ code and I agreed that there’s an ethical problem here based on the principle of acting independently,” Craig went on in his report. “She was considering quitting her job, so I asked her whether this kind of request was part of a pattern or an isolated incident, and whether the incident itself was serious enough to justify quitting now versus making her case for ethical conduct.

“She said this had not happened before but she is troubled by the support for the advertiser’s view.”

The online editor explained that she had drafted an email to her supervisor asking for the removal of her byline from the story in question, and that she thought the decision to add information about the advertiser was unethical.

Craig suggested that she explain why she thought it was unethical and that her position was based on the SPJ code of ethics, “so it was clear this was not just her individual judgment but reflected the standards of the profession.”

The caller decided to raise the point about acting independently and to include a link to the SPJ code in her email to her editor.

AdviceLine has no further information on this case, so the outcome is not known. But journalists who contact AdviceLine often express appreciation for having someone to call in cases like this and to talk about the issues involved. The discussion often leads to some ideas on how to overcome the ethics dilemma.

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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.

Photo Credit Ethics

Case Study

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By Casey Bukro

Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists

Photographers usually like credit for the work they do.

It seemed strange, then, when a seventeen year-old freelance photographer refused a byline on a photo he submitted to an Arkansas newspaper. It showed the inside of a private business that had been gutted by fire.

The teenager hangs out in fire and police departments that tip him off to newsworthy events, giving him access that is not available to other media. Developing contacts usually in considered a smart way to operate in the news business.

But the newspaper’s weekend editor called the Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists, asking if there is something unethical about that exclusive arrangement between the young photographer and the police and fire departments. Especially troubling was the photographer’s refusal to take a photo credit.

“We’re not sure if it’s because he fears reaction from the company (that had the fire) or from the firefighters who let him inside the scene,” said the editor. “Our questions are: Should he have taken the photo in the first place? Should we run his name with it since he did take it, and is it unethical not to accept the photo credit? And, if a journalist has an advantage such as this over other media outlets through a volunteer or organizational system, is it okay to use it to the paper’s advantage?”

The AdviceLine advisor responded by asking a few questions, which produced these results:

“Turns out the seventeen year-old is the grandson of the general manager of the paper, a paper which is one of three sister papers,” reported the advisor. “No one had talked to him (the photographer) about why he did not want a photo credit.”

The advisor and the editor discussed being transparent and accountable.

“The bigger issue, however, was that there were no guidelines at any of the newspapers for how to deal with bylines and credits. I found out that none of the papers in this group follow a code of ethics of any kind. “

As a start, the advisor encouraged the editor to consult the Society of Professional Journalists code of ethics because it contains guidelines that would be helpful in her case.

“These papers are small and some newspaper personnel work for volunteer fire departments then take photos while they are on the job – photos that eventually appear in the paper,” wrote the advisor in her report on this case. The editor and the advisor talked further about conflicts of interest.

After the discussion with the AdviceLine advisor, the editor and the newspaper’s staff planned a meeting to create guidelines and discuss the SPJ code of ethics.

The case illustrated the importance of having written standards that are known and understood by the entire staff. They can be carefully thought-out in advance and used as a reference when the need arises, rather than struggling to come up with answers whenever an ethics issue arises.

The case also shows that the news business is not necessarily a cut-throat enterprise as it often is portrayed. The editor was concerned about having an unfair advantage over other news operations through unethical practices. Good for her.

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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.

A Student Paper’s Dilemma

Case Study

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By Casey Bukro

Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists

A student newspaper published a story about one student’s experience and perspective on smoking marijuana to deal with anxiety and stress.

After the story was published, the student who was interviewed complained that she thought her comments would be part of a broader story quoting many students. Further, editors learned that the student was a close friend of the reporter who wrote the story. They would not have published the story if they knew of this conflict of interest.

The student who was interviewed asked the editors to take down the story.

The newspaper’s managing editor said she was considering leaving the story up, but including an editor’s note acknowledging the lack of transparency and conflict of interest. Or taking it down, but including a note explaining why.

The managing editor contacted the Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists, asking for advice on the best course of action.

“I made clear to the managing editor that it was not my role to tell her what to do, but I considered and applied the relevant principles from the SPJ code of ethics to lay out the relevant considerations for her,” said the advisor, David Craig.

As for acting independently, they discussed the conflict of interest of the reporter being close friends with the story subject. But the advisor also pointed to the difficulty of setting a precedent of taking stories down when sources are unhappy with them.

Craig advised against apologizing if they do take down the story, only explaining the reasons.

They discussed the reporter’s lack of transparency, and taking responsibility in some way for the unethical conduct of the reporter.

“The principle of minimizing harm also informed the discussion of impact on the subject of the story. As we left it, she was going to confer with other editors on how to proceed.”

Among her considerations was how to balance accountability and transparency with the possible impact on the credibility of the publication if they took down the story. The managing editor was giving further thought to the issue of setting a precedent in taking down stories that annoy sources.

The newsroom is entirely independent and run by students.

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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.

Anonymous or Not

Case Study

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By Casey Bukro

Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists

The Indiana host and producer of a radio show was half-way through recording an interview with a man who photographs abandoned buildings when the photographer said he did not want to be identified in the interview.

The interview had been going on for eight minutes; the photographer knew he was being recorded for radio. He described how he trespasses with the intent of supporting historical preservation.

This posed a dilemma for the radio host, a common dilemma when people being interviewed suddenly get cold feet or did not understand the ground rules for most interviews, which usually means being identified.

The radio host called the Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists, seeking advice on whether to air the interview with the photographer identified, not identified or simply ditching the entire interview.

AdviceLine advisor David Craig started by emphasizing the importance of telling the truth, and relevance of principles spelled out in the Society of Professional Journalists code of ethics.

The radio producer explained that the photographer is one of many people involved in a broader issue in Evansville, Indiana, related to the decay of old buildings, historic preservation and new development.

“Related to minimizing harm,” said the advisor, “she said a lot of police listen to the program and she would feel terrible to put this man in jail (for trespassing) when he is trying to do what he sees as good in the community.

“As for accountability and transparency, she was concerned about letting him be anonymous because of the credibility questions this might create with listeners if they were not transparent about his identity.”

Craig pointed to a model of ethical decision-making in which one question is whether there is an alternative course of action that won’t raise ethical issues. Given that the photographer’s actions connect with broader issues in the community and he is not the only one working for historic preservation and community development, the advisor and the radio producer agreed that a broader story on the topic could be developed, possibly with multiple identified sources instead of airing this story based on a single anonymous person or with identification.

To this discussion could be added the importance of stating the ground rules for an interview at the beginning, including identifying the person being interviewed. If there is any disagreement about this, it should be discussed before the interview starts.

In the Evansville case, it was clear that many people were involved in the preservation campaign. The radio producer could decide whether to proceed with an interview on an anonymous basis if that person was important to the story, or to skip it and find others to interview who would agree to be identified.

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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.