|
LIFE: Latin's Initiative For Ethics Gets Underway
Should journalists turn over to authorities evidence of a crime they uncovered
while researching a story?
How should reporters respond to a public official who offers to take them
to dinner or give them tickets to a play?
Is it acceptable to mislead people to get to the bottom of a story that would
serve the common good?
These are some of the ethical questions addressed by a group of current and
former print and broadcast journalists who participated in a panel discussion
at Latin this
November.
The discussion was the first event in The Latin Initiative For Ethics (LIFE),
a recently launched four-year curricular and extra-curricular program that
is designed
to provide a framework for the ongoing study of contemporary ethics issues.
"Focusing on the practical ethical issues that journalists deal with
in their work
was an ideal
way to introduce Middle and Upper School students to the concepts they will
be examining during the next four years," said Academic Dean Ingrid Dorer
Fitzpatrick, who, with the help of committees of students and teachers,
organized the program.
"While most of us don't necessarily have to think about ethical issues
in our daily lives, journalists are regularly faced with making ethical decisions
that could ruin
people's lives or careers or call their own credibility into question."
Participating in the discussion were Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago Tribune
reporter and editor Jeff Lyon; "Dateline" producer Cathy Singer; Chicago
Sun-Times legal affairs reporter Abdon Pallasch; Carlos Hernandez Gomez, political reporter
for WBEZ,
Chicago Public Radio; Eric Ferkenhoff, formerly the Chicago Police Department
reporter for the Chicago Tribune; Terri Pyer, Latin's director
of communications and former editorial writer for The Daily Item in
central Pennsylvania; and Evelyne Girardet, assistant director of communications
and
a former Associated Press
reporter.
 During an earlier visit, Lyon also spoke to the staff of the Forum student
newspaper about these issues.
Panel members each shared some of their own experiences and answered many
questions from students during and after the assembly. Students learned
from Jeff Lyon
that he still questions his decision to go undercover as a student protestor
in pursuit of a
story during the Vietnam War. They heard why Pallasch chose to turn over
to police videotapes of rap star R. Kelley engaging in sexual relations
with a
minor. And they
were given a taste of the many precautions "Dateline" takes to ensure that
every story is accurate and every source is credible.
"The panel did a great job of involving the entire community in a discussion
of professional ethics," said Philip Arnolds, a member of the student organizing
committee. "I think it served as an excellent introduction to the Initiative,
and really captured people's attention."
For the remainder of the school year LIFE will sponsor workshops, special
presentations, and guest speakers focusing on ethics issues in journalism
and mass communications.
During the 2003-2004 school year the theme will be contemporary bioethics
issues, followed by ethics in the political arena, and, during the final
year, professional
ethics.
"The Initiative for Ethics plans to stress the importance of the moral and ethical
judgments that define our ideas of right and wrong," wrote student David Wishnick in
his introduction to the program. "By discussing important choices, the Initiative for
Ethics hopes to keep ethical questions in the forefront of students‚ minds."
|
