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Media & Ethics
MEDIA & ETHICS
We’re living in strange times. As a virus sweeps through the world, people’s stress level has reached a boiling point, and many are fed up with the status quo. People of color and their allies are fed up with racism and police brutality.
MEDIA & ETHICS
Juvenal, the ancient Roman poet, had a phrase for it: “Bread and circuses.” By that he meant keep the rabble distracted from their woes with entertainment of the grossest kind .
MEDIA & ETHICS
Author’s Note: For years, the National Enquirer has taken shots at Scientology and at other religions, benevolent organizations, and charitable groups whose names exceeded the two-syllable maximum that its editors could pronounce.
MEDIA & ETHICS
The couple’s public statement is a shot across the bow at a disturbing trend that has become the new normal over recent decades: the overt and covert catering of too much of the mass media toward the prurient and the suggestive, at the expense of facts, and with no thought of consequences other than circulation.
MEDIA & ETHICS
The article contained no controversy, no sensationalism, no drama, and most of all, no bias. How refreshing to view something online about my religion without being moved to hurl my chamomile tea at the screen. How lovely to not have to field a phone call from a concerned non-Scientologist relative or friend about the latest canard to hit cyberspace.
MEDIA & ETHICS
It got me thinking: who actually works at tabloids like that? What are their story pitch meetings like? Do they know that what they’re doing is hurtful and destructive? They must, right? Do they just laugh it all off or make justifications to convince themselves they’re still good people, and that it’s “just for entertainment”?
MEDIA & ETHICS
I actually saw this question in an online forum the other day: “If I wanted to start my own cult, how would I do it?” Now to begin with, the word “cult” is simply a pejorative word for some group the person using it doesn't like.
MEDIA & ETHICS
Before taking out his AK-47 and using it to murder 22 innocent people in El Paso, Texas, alleged shooter Patrick Crusius published his “reasoning” for the crime in a place where he knew his words would be well-received--by others who shared his sentiments of hate.
MEDIA & ETHICS
It’s obvious why journalists are wary of those who offer to trade information for profit— such people are all too likely to say what they think the person paying them wants to hear, regardless of the truth. Put in cruder terms than in the SPJ’s Code: “You get what you pay for.”
MEDIA & ETHICS
It may be hard to spot the common denominator of all of Ortega’s flops, but I’ll tell you what I see.
