The Conflict in Ethics
The ethics of journalism consider the reasoning behind human action and morals.They have many aspects that contribute to such as law of instructions,good manners,and politness guidelines.The four basic principles set by the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics, which journalists should take into consideration, are the ability to seek truth and report it; to minimize harm; to act independently; and be accountable and transparent.
Will’s program focuses on finding the truth and reporting it.He states that his program will manage talking in a democratic way which is the right of every electorate with champion of facts (420Rellik).It is meant to be an idealistic sometimes comedic but very optimistic looking look at a group of people who are often looked at cynically. This unfortunately haven’t been clear in his interview with Sutton Wall as he neglects his ethical obligation to avoid doing harm and actually bullies his interviewee by attacking him with questions ,where his tone became too aggressive and attempted on highlighting the idea of him being a black and gay person supporting the candidate Trump who is a racist and a homophobic. This aggressive journalism took place affecting gays in their lives especially those wishing to marry, especially Trump’s negative point of view towards this concern.
We later discover that Sutton Wall, the deputy chief of staff to Trump, doesn’t support him for his racist and homophobic views and is only with him for what concerns anti-abortion and Trump’s side on that. He also seemed to show his aggressive side as he waves a finger at Will and shouts: “Shut up! I’ll let you know when I am finished” . The whole point of Sutton was to talk about the ethics of abortion and why he supports Trump for that; however, Will attempted to attack him with questions of racism and homophobia which is way too far from his central point. Will seemed to attack him also with the color of his skin and being gay which showed that Will’s point was to bring him down instead of understanding Sutton’s point of view and stand.
This shows that Will hadn’t apply to the principles of the Journalist’s code.He seemed to attack homosexuals and that such people are not quite suitable for such positions.In addition, he attacked his interviewee so aggressively as if he wanted to harm him and humiliate him on national TV.This ofcourse to show that there’s something wrong when a gay person supports a racist and a homophobic.
The consequentialist perspective actually focuses on what does less harm to most people. This considers taking into consideration if Sutton’s humiliation of TV caused him any harm. On the other hand, the non-consequentialist position would find the good in Will’s actions where it would neglect the fact that Will attempted to attack Sutton, he was trying to attack Santorum and not to cause any harm to Sutton.This ofcourse could lead to conflict since both Sutton and Will seem to search for what contributes to “a good life for human beings living individually and together” (Couldry, 2012, p. 190).
My personal view on this subject is consequentialist. I would actually focus on the fact that Will’s interview focused only on Santorum’s failure as a presidential candidate, in order to protect millions of people who are homosexuals .In addition, Sutton actually showed that he only cares about abortion and didn’t give slight an importance to his views on racism. His views were also non-consequentialist regarding taking a human life considering it absolutely wrong.. He also showed that his only concern was the right for the baby to live and appeared less concerned in what Santorum could cause from harm. So, his whole point was to show his stand concerning abortion away from what Wall’s angle.
I really found a useless aggressive journalism in this interview.Things would have went well if Will had attempted to change his tone and impolite behavior while Sutton was talking.He should have stopped interfering in what Sutton wanted to say and actually decided to listen instead of interrupting. He also should have avoided focusing on the point of heating up the interview by focusing just on the idea of a black gay man who supports Trump, that is an absolute racist, and actually focused on listening to Sutton’s point of view regarding his support for Trump.
References
420Rellik. (2013). Will McAvoy’s Apology (The Newsroom). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXrOqjS9ZyA
Baker, S. (2008). The Ethics of Advocacy: Moral Reasoning in the Practice of Public Relations. In L. Wilkins & C. G. Christians (Eds.), The Handbook of Mass Media Ethics(1 edition). New York: Routledge.
Couldry, N. (2012). Media, Society, World: Social Theory and Digital Media Practice. Polity.
SPJ. (2014, September 6). SPJ Code of Ethics [Society of Professional Journalists]. Retrieved from http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp
Ward, S. (2011). Ethics and the Media. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
