Ethics in the Media

Kobe Bryant's Past: A Tweet Too Soon?

Felicia Sonmez, reporter for The Washington Post linked an article on social media a few hours after Kobe Bryant's death about his sexual assault case from 2003. She afterwards got a lot of criticism from the public about her post being insensitive. In, result she was put on administration leave because she was under investigation for violating The Washington Post's social media policy. After further notice Sonmez was supported by The Washington Post because she didn't violate any codes. 

In my opinion Sonmez's response to Kobe Bryant's death was not acceptable. The sensitive information she tweeted was to soon after his passing. Plus, no grieving families should have to see this negative aspect in their family member's life after a tragic passing. Sonmez had rights to express her voice about the difficult situation such as, sexual assault but she should've either waited longer or spoke up before since the case was over 15 years ago. Overall, I believe she was completely inappropriate about Bryant's death. 

Publishing Drunk Driver's Photos

Writer Don White of The Anderson News would publish photos of DUI driver's mugshots in his local county newspaper. While, also publishing the offenders name, age, place of residence, date and time arrested, charge, and blood alcohol level. White only ever let one exception about drunk driving in his paper be passed, which was the chairmen of his county's Democratic Party. 

This policy seems appropriate for a newspaper because it's advocating for people to not be driving under alcohol usage. Although some of the allegations were about underage children it gives the public reasons to not be drunk driving. Overall, writers have a right to publish about people being convicted of DUI since it brings notice to this problem. 

Who's the"Predator"?

NBC's series Dateline is a television show to catch child predators. They make fake situations with children to get the suspected predator to be caught and reported by the media. This new ideal has become very debatable by viewers because many people believe it can affect the children caught in the situation. While also not truly changing the predator problem. 

If a television station asked me to be apart of identifying perverts I would say no. Because, even though I personally believe in catching these predators the possibility of the public harassing me for being involved would personally be to hard. Overall, the negative impact me and my family could receive from the media wouldn't be worth the risk of participating.