Response to Vic

I think the ethics in TV journalism vary by market, channel, station, and who you are a subsidiary of. Jesse did point out that ethical decisions have to be made day in and day out, but I would like to pose the argument that many of these ethical questions are repeated...day in and day out. I take this standpoint after watching the news and seeing what the class had to say about the local news as a whole.

It seems that the news is a repeat of a story you have already heard. Death, dying, meth, police chase, economy, etc. How many new decisions are really brought up each day where the editorial staff is left scratching their heads and stressing out about whether they should run a story or not?

To Jesse's benefit, he did preface with the fact that he was a bit unorganized which made the discussion rather unorganized and had me wondering what he was getting at half the time, but his only ethical dilemma he could give us took him a minute to come up with, and then he had an event that occurred years ago. Now this was a good example, but he was not chalk full ethical problems that he faces at KOIN each broadcast.

This may seem harsh, but its just what I got from the Jesse and responding to Vic.

I have not really thought about ethics in TV journalism until hearing Jesse Day’s lecture on the topic. It turns out that producers, writers, directors, anchors and journalists have to make ethical questions on a daily basis. There seems to be a gray area when it comes to making a decision on whether to run a particular story. I was always under the impression that TV news stations are exercising their freedom of speech and press by airing the topics they choose. However, as Mr. Day pointed out that this is not always the case. The attribution of the story has to be analyzed from many sides before airing it.

I believe one of the things that make this country great is the freedom of the press. Many countries have state-controlled media and can only air “approved” topics. Countries such as Cuba, North Korea, China and many South American countries, don’t have the freedom of the press. However, with freedom comes responsibility. For example, a news program can show a victim of a gunshot wound with guts and gore everywhere. Is this ethical? I will leave the answer up to you.