courtesy of The Dallas Morning News.
Learning Goals
This chapter will help you understand:
the definition of ethics – discern what is right and wrong, then act on what is right;
how ancient societies developed systems of ethics;
how ethics and the law are similar and how they differ;
how people’s values shape the choices they make;
the meaning of the term ethical dilemma; and
how an ethical person makes decisions.
VIRGINIA GERST KNOWS something about ethics. In May 2003, when she was arts and entertainment editor for the Pioneer Press chain of weeklies in the Chicago area, she ran a critical review of a restaurant. (The baby back ribs “tasted more fatty than meaty.” Several other dishes were “rather run‐of‐the‐mill.”)
That displeased the restaurant owner, who was both a prospective advertiser and county president of the restaurant owners’ association. To placate the restaurateur, the Pioneer Press publisher had an advertising executive write a second review, one that would be positive. Gerst was ordered to run it. Instead, she quit.
“I understand that these are tough times for newspapers,” she wrote in her letter of resignation. “But economic concerns are not sufficient to make me sacrifice the integrity of a section I have worked for, cared about, and worried over for two decades.” 1
John Cruickshank understands ethics, too. In the midst of a management upheaval in November 2003, this career journalist was thrust into the job of publisher of the Chicago Sun‐Times (owned by the same company as the Pioneer Press weeklies). Months later, he discovered a breach of trust that astonished and angered him. Using accounting ruses that fooled even the agency responsible for auditing newspaper circulations, departed executives had been overstating the paper’s circulation by up to 50,000 copies a day. Cruickshank did not hesitate to go public with his discovery. This was not just a commendable display of candor; it was costly to a paper already a distant second to the Chicago Tribune. The paper was acknowledging that its advertisers had not been getting the exposure they had paid for, and it eventually had to repay those advertisers millions of dollars. 2
Being Ethical Requires Action
Ethics is a set of moral principles, a code – often unwritten – that guides a person’s conduct. But more than that, as Gerst and Cruickshank demonstrated, ethics requires action.
“There are two aspects to ethics,” the ethicist Michael Josephson says. “The first involves the ability to discern right from wrong, good from evil, and propriety from impropriety. The second involves the commitment to do what is right, good, and proper.” As a practical matter, Josephson says, “ethics is about how we meet the challenge of doing the right thing when that will cost more than we want to pay.” 3 Or, in the words of Keith Woods, former dean of faculty of the Poynter Institute, “ethics is the pursuit of right when wrong is a strong possibility.” 4
Gerst and Cruickshank were practicing applied ethics, the branch of moral philosophy that deals with making decisions about concrete cases in a profession or occupation. 5 That is what this text is about. Your study of applied ethics in journalism is intended to help you solve the challenges you may face in your career. To do so, you need to draw on your own sense of right and wrong, enhanced by an understanding of ethical theory and a systematic way of making decisions. The idea is to put ethics into action.
Although some scholars see a fine distinction between ethics and morals, the terms are used interchangeably in this text. The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy defines ethics as “the philosophical study of morality” and says ethics “is commonly used interchangeably with morality” to mean the subject matter of such a philosophical study. 6
The Origins of Ethics Theory
Tracing the origins of ethical thinking underscores the importance of ethics as a society’s bedrock foundation. Ethical theory evolved in ancient societies as a basis for justice and the orderly functioning of the group, a purpose it still serves today.
A familiar example is the Ten Commandments from the Judeo‐Christian heritage, which sets forth the rules that would govern the Hebrews freed from Egyptian captivity in about 1500 bce. Among other things, they were admonished not to kill, steal, or lie.
An earlier example is Babylonia’s Code of Hammurabi. The laws promulgated by the ruler Hammurabi (1728–1646 bce) directed that “the strong might not oppress the weak” and outlined a system of justice that meant “the straight thing.” Hammurabi’s justice centered on rules governing property and contracts. His code, however, was not without flaws. A surgeon who caused the blindness of a man of standing would have his hand cut off, but if he caused the blindness of a slave, he could set things right by paying the owner half the value of the slave. 7
Ancient Greece gave the English language the word ethics, which is derived from the Greek ethos, meaning character. The citizens of Athens created the concept that an ethical reasoning system should be based on an individual’s virtue and character, rather than rules. Because virtue was to be practiced as a lifelong habit, a Greek citizen would be honest because it would be unthinkable to be dishonest. The virtue philosophers of Athens – Socrates (469–399 bce), Plato (427–347 bce), and Aristotle (384–322 bce) – believed that “the individual, in living a virtuous life, would form part of an overall virtuous community.” 8
Socrates, who made the famous declaration that “the unexamined life is not worth living,” established a line of questioning intended to provoke thought. He “roamed Greece probing and challenging his brethren’s ideas about such abstract concepts as justice and goodness,” ethics scholar Louis A. Day wrote. “This Socratic method of inquiry, consisting of relentless questions and answers about the nature of moral conduct, has proved to be a durable commodity, continuing to touch off heated discussions about morality in barrooms and classrooms alike.” 9
Ethical thinking evolved in societies around the world. A common thread is found in how various cultures articulated what is best known as the Golden Rule. This rule defines the essence of being an ethical person, which is to consider the needs of others. Today we state it as “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” The author Rushworth M. Kidder traced the “criterion of reversibility”:
This rule, familiar to students of the Bible, is often thought of as a narrowly Christian dictum. To be sure, it appears in the book of Matthew: “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.” But Jews find it in the Talmud, which says, “That which you hold as detestable, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole law: the rest is but commentary.” Or, as it appears in the teachings of Islam, “None of you is a believer if he does not desire for his brother that which he desires for himself.” … The label “golden” was applied by Confucius (551–479 bce), who wrote: “Here certainly is the golden maxim: Do not do to others which we do
