Recently in Media Ethics Category

Wal-Mart seems to be playing a much larger part in our blog than usual lately, but apparently that's where all the news happens. 

If you're a reader of Self, you may or may not have heard the outraged cries echoing in the blogosphere when the magazine published its September cover featuring an extremely fit Kelly Clarkson - or more accurately, a falsely-fit Clarkson. 

I'm on the fence about in-your-face public service announcements, as my prior post on sugary soda indicates. But this one, called "Save the Boobs", which you can watch on ABC News, really takes shock ads to a new level. Jiggling breasts, referred to as 'tatas', 'cheechees' and etc. and women in skimpy bikinis make this look more like a beer commercial than the breast cancer awareness spot it actually is.

I was reading a CNN article about the 4 young men falsely accused of rape at Hofstra University; unsurprisingly, they described the experience as 'traumatic'. Well, yes, to say the least!

Please don't get me wrong, I'm not speaking out against rape victims who speak up -- all too often, their voices are heard with disbelief and scorn. I merely want to make a comment on the whole concept of "innocent until proven guilty" in America.

As the lines of communication become more and more ubiquitous, it seems that this long-held credo of the American justice system has been thrown out the window. To even be linked to a crime, especially such horrendous crimes as rape and murder, is traumatizing (a weak word, in my opinion). Unfortunately, it's made all the worse by the media and the public who listens, with ears cocked for the salacious details and their mouths ready to condemn.

Take for example the sad story of Annie Le. Almost as soon as Raymond Clark was arrested and charged with Le's murder, news stories were popping up all over the internet and television with headlines plastering his mugshot and blathering on about how he was always 'quiet' and 'loved his dog'.

I was, however, pleasantly surprised to see that Yale University President Richard Levin was quoted as saying, "we must resist the temptation to rush to judgment." Thank you, sir!

Again, I'm not speaking out against the victims of these atrocities -- merely asking for a bit of restraint before we sharpen our pitchforks.

It does if Terry Moran (Moron?) tweets it.So, the civility debate rages (ironically) on. And as everyone's buzzing, the president's now caught up in it, having remarked off the record in a CNBC interview that he thought Kanye West was...

Public health announcements: they make me vastly uneasy. And none more so than the new NYC anti-soda campaign, which actually just makes me vastly queasy:Do we really need some in-your-face ad agency terrifying us with PSAs à la the text-messaging teenagers car crash video that...

Today, Everyday Ethics had its first major plug... if you can call it that. USA TODAY gave us a mention in their Religion blog, but it wasn't exactly pretty. "This is ethics as popcorn, tasty and quickly forgotten." Or...

The AP is reporting disgraced ex-reporter Jayson Blair - famous for plagiarizing (and in some cases, completely fabricating) the news while a New York Times reporter back in 2003 - has a new career these days: Life Coach. Blair, who...

They say confession is good for the soul. We're going to find out, starting today, our first Failure Friday!Last Monday, Hillary debuted our new feature, "Moral Mondays", honoring those who put their words into action and act in an outstanding...

Nar-cis-sism  [nahr-suh-siz-em]  -noun1. inordinate fascination with oneself; excessive self-love; vanity.2. Psychoanalysis. erotic gratification derived from admiration of one's own physical or mental attributes, being a normal condition at the infantile level of personality development. Is it unethical for the news to become...

I haven't blogged about the David Carradine story up 'til now, because, well, I thought it was somewhat unethical to dredge the actor's death into the public spotlight more than it already was (if that were possible). I'm of the...