Columnists

I enjoy reading columns, but I was wondering where does one draw the line between a columnist's prized freedom of speech and journalistic professionalism? It's great that a columnist can take sides and doesn't necessarily have to be "fair," but I don't think this gives them the right to swear or use racial slurs. They are still a part of the newspaper and they should conduct themselves in a professional manner. To take this further, do you think it is unethical for a columnist to swear or use other derogatory terms? (I know they have another set of rules that apply specifically to them, but I am not well briefed on them.) Does anyone else agree or disagree with me? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Eliot Spitzer Call Girl Scandal

First of all, I should say that this is more of my opinion than an ethical dilemma. Regarding the whole Eliot Spitzer call girl scandal, it angers me that Spitzer is suffering so much and Ashley, aka "Kristin", is reaping all the benefits. The media has been all over her Myspace page, finding pictures, tracking down videos, and basically doing whatever they can to get visuals of her. In a way, it's almost glorifying her for being a call girl. She is already getting rich from everyone buying her song off her Myspace music page, when really I think she should be suffering the same shame as Spitzer. Do you think it's the media's right and privilege to publish these photos and bring even more "fame" to Ashley? Or do you think the media has nothing to do with the way Ashley is being perceived by the American public?

Northwestern madness

Following the whole question on ethical decision making, I had some questions about the Northwestern journalism "scandal". Professor Hinchey told me to facebook message David Spett, the senior who did the investigative work and first questioned the Dean's credidibility. After a few messages back and forth, here is what I came up with:

1) When you questioned Dean Lavine's sources, did you first talk to Lavine or did you automatically contact the 29 students and THEN talk to Lavine?
- I talked to the students in the class first, then Lavine.

2) What in particular jumped out at you that made you question the authenticity of Lavine's sources?
- I would say it was a combination of the fact that I saw no reason for the quotes to be anonymous and I thought the wording of the quotes was strange. "Sure felt good" and "truth telling in journalism" are not phrases used by people I know.

3) How did you feel about Levine before hand? Did you feel he was pretty credible?
- Lavine's been a controversial dean, no question, but that's a separate issue from the one here: Whether he fabricated three quotes in the alumni magazine, whether that's OK, and whether it was appropriate to use the anonymous quotes in the first place. I see my role as presenting the facts; I make no judgment on these issues.

4) Have you had any personal repercussions as a result of this?
- A lot of media coverage. NPR (x3), the Chicago Tribune (a front-page story, editorial, columns and continuing coverage), the Chicago Sun-Times (two stories and an editorial), Chicago Reader, Washington Post, Associated Press, Chronicle of Higher Ed., US News & World Report, Newsweek, Editor & Publisher, WIND-AM, Gawker. Coming soon: the American Journalism Review.


In response to the new information (http://poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id=13167) acquitting Levine from the charges, I only have one question. From what I gathered, the committee released him on 2 accounts:
1) This particular publication was from Spring 2007, so it was a year old. Thus, they don't expect him to have saved all of his notes.
2) Levine could have gotten this quote, or something like it, from course evaluations.
This is all OKAY, but it still does not answer the question "why doesn't any student recall saying this quote?" I'm sure the student would have remembered saying it, even if it was in a course evaluation and the student was not specifically being interviewed by the Dean.

Any weigh-in on the matter??

VA Tech project: some helpful websites

I've been looking up a few websites for our VA Tech project. Here is what I have come up with:

http://www.vtreviewpanel.org/report/index.html
^ "The Virginia Tech Review Panel Report" This has many pages and is in pdf format. My mom found this this past year when she was working on the Cleveland school shooting case. She said it might be helpful

http://www.newsweek.com/id/32153
^ A newsweek article "How To Tell If Your School Is Safe"

http://www.montclair.edu/videos/CampusSafetyNews.pdf
^ Another long pdf format. "VT shooting puts spotlight on campus security"

http://www.alerts.vt.edu/safety_and_security.php
^ Some safety things VA Tech does. Could give us some tips on how to check if our campus is safe

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2007/08/02/summit.ART_ART_08-02-07_B3_2G7GO2H.html
^ A Columbus Dispatch article I found "VA Tech tragedy spurs safety summit"

Donating money to an issue your covering

I'm currently working an article about the Chicago Mission Team luncheon. As I was entering the Benes room (where the event was being held), I was asked if I wanted to buy a ticket so that I could have some pizza OR if I just wanted to donate money for their cause. Although I would have liked to donate a couple of dollars, I knew that goes against Journalism ethics. I cannot ethically endorse a cause that I am writing about. Even though this is only a college paper and it wouldn't have been the end of the world had I donated a couple dollars, I decided to stick to my guns and not donate money. It might have come off a little coldhearted, but oh well. I think I did the right thing.

Is interviewing a fellow journalism classmate unethical?

I was doing an article about Sisters United and The Onyx and I wondered if there would be an ethical issue with interviewing Shade Fakunle, the head of The Onyx. In past journalism classes we had talked about how it's kind of sketchy territory interviewing someone in our journalism class. However, Shade was the source of the information that I needed for my story. I wasn't sure what to do so I asked Professor Hinchey.

Here is his reply:

Here's my take: You, the reporter, are trying to get facts about The Onyx. You are not a member of The Onyx. You are not a member of Sisters United. Yes, Shade, is in your class. I don't know how well you know Shade. But even if you know her from 350 as only a classmate, I think it would be ethically OK to interview Shade about The Onyx in her role as someone who is involved in The Onyx. I would talk to her in a neutral setting, say Ham-Will? Does that make sense? Plan B would be find someone else in The Onyx, maybe someone that Shade could suggest as a resource. It would be one thing if you were BOTH on The Onyx, and you were interviewing Shade.


That really helped me a lot. I realized that it is kind of inevitable that I will run across someone who has been in one of my classes. As long as I keep it professional it should be alright.