“We’ll be the champion of facts, and the mortal enemy of innuendo, speculation, hyperbole and nonsense.” Will McAvoy promised his audience in the American Tv series “ The News Room “ to commit fully to exposing the truth providing nothing but facts in context of humanity . In one of the episodes, McAvoy interviews Sutton Wall , a black homosexual man who is a former deputy chief of staff to Senator Rick Santorum who is known for his racist , homophobe stands . McAvoy’s insolence during the interview depicts a dilemma of harm versus truth in context . When does a journalist cross the borders of media ethics ? and when does the the road to reach the truth become detrimental ?

The SPJ code of ethics declares that journalists should “Balance the public’s need for information against potential harm or discomfort.”(2014) Journalists must respect and show tolerance to their subject’s perspective despite its controversy or contradiction to what they believe is right . McAvoy didn’t abide by that ; he was attacking his subject , breaking the trust he made to his audience . McAvoy hindered Sutton’s attempts of explanation and was refuting them preposterously with rage and fury . What if Sutton supported Santorum ? The two might have different perspectives on matters but that doesn’t make Sutton iniquitous for still believing the man would make a good president .

If the man being interviewed was Santorum , perhaps Will’s overreaction might have been more justifiable . But in this case, it started off as a quest to find answers from Wall about Santorum but he ended up offending the man , bombarding him with off guard questions that caused him t0 tear up .

A journalist must be able to balance between his subjectivity to the matter and his quest of revealing the truth . McAvoy was manipulating the man , pressuring him with personal questions and invading his privacy to an extent where Wall started off by explaining how Santorum shows him nothing but total respect till ending up with admitting that Santorum doesn’t think he’s fit to be a teacher .

Despite if that was his intention or not , McAvoy shouldn’t have tackled this matter in such subjectivity. Forcing his perspective on Wall and the audience reveals a sign of weakness and exposes his ineffectual communication skills which makes him less credible as a journalist who vowed to depict his show in the upmost professionalism . AJA code of ethics doesn’t allow journalists to emphasize on race, gender, etc, sexuality, etc .. (Chapter 58: Pressure on journalists, n.d.) As a professional , he should be aware that the subject of sexuality and race is a sensitive one and must be approached in a different way .He could’ve at least gave the man the opportunity to speak up ; he only did after Will asked him to shut up .

In a sense , McAvoy didn’t really provide the audience with new information but he did expose Santorum as a hypocrite who is being represented by a black homosexual . Thus according to the consequential theory , Will has been ethical in his approach since he did reveal “ the truth “ despite the path he took to achieve that . But personally , I don’t think theories justify people’s behavior. Respect is a priority despite his intentions and revealing the truth on behalf of a public humiliation is never the right thing to do .

References :

Delta,S (1973). SPJ code of ethics. Society of Professional Journalists. Retrieved from :http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp

Chapter 58: pressure on journalists (n.d.). The News Manual: A professional resource for journalists and the media. Retrieved from : http://www.thenewsmanual.net/Manuals%20Volume%203/volume3_58.htm