Discuss the journalistic ethics involved in the following situations:

1			An executive session is being held by the local Independent Party to select a candidate for mayor. You can hear the closed-door discussions across an air shaft; you can hear them better if you toss a small microphone on a long cable over the air shaft to a window sill and record the discussion. Do you listen in?
2			A good source has told you that he can obtain a document about candidates for the job of city manager, including their personal records. Do you ask him to slip you the material?
3			You cover the state legislature and develop some personal friends among legislators and lobbyists. They have a friendly weekly poker game and invite you to join them as a regular. Do you?
4			You are going over data on homicides and other violent crimes for the past year, and you notice that race and ethnic origin are included in the homicide figures but not in the rape data. You ask for the data and the police chief says that the department keeps it but has not distributed it because it is "volatile." You obtain the material and understand what he means. Almost 80 percent of the rape arrests involve members of minority groups. As in the case of homicides, the bulk of the victims were of the same race or ethnic origin as the alleged perpetrators. The chief warns you about using the rape data. "Murder is one thing. People can accept it. But rape...." Do you use all the figures?
5			You cover business and finance. A local banker suggests you buy stock in his parent bank because of an expansion program yet unannounced. Do you buy?
6			Your newspaper, you learn from a confidential source, hired a CIA agent in the 1970s and gave him cover as a reporter. Do you write a story?
7			The local chapter of a medical organization is willing to finance your way to the annual convention of the American Medical Association because of the splendid way you have handled medical news over the past year. Your newspaper would like you to go but cannot afford the $1,500 in costs, the editor says. He tells you to use your judgment about accepting the offer. Do you go?
8			A reporter is asked out for an evening—dinner and the theater—by a source. The evening is a social engagement; it is not related to any story the reporter is covering. The reporter is attracted to the source. Should the reporter accept?
9			A source involved in a federal government contract tells you that he has been involved in an illegal scheme to inflate costs. He names two other company officials, who deny the allegations. Your source gives you some documents that allude to the scheme but do not prove it. It is his word against theirs, and you believe him on the basis of long acquaintance. You know that if you run the story he will be fired.
10			You learn that the newspaper plant (or broadcast station property) is vastly underassessed. You plan to include this in a story about evaluation of downtown property. The editor sends the story upstairs, and mention of the newspaper (or station) is edited out. What do you do?
11			Two basketball players make anti-Semitic remarks in passing during an interview. Do you include the remarks in your story?
12			A reporter for a weekly student newspaper at Dartmouth College attended a meeting of the Gay Students Association at the college and secretly taped the session. She wrote an article that contained excerpts of people describing their sexual experiences, and she named two gay leaders. The moderator had read an oath of confidentiality at the start of the meeting. What do you think of the reporter's use of a secret tape recorder? Do you consider this an invasion of the privacy of members of the group?
13			The textbook gives opposing views on whether the press should examine the sexual lives of presidential candidates. Do you think it is morally correct to investigate the sex lives of candidates? Was the technique The Miami Herald used—staking out Gary Hart's home—ethical? Was the coverage of a woman's allegations of a sexual liaison with Bill Clinton ethical? Was the press too preoccupied with the Monica Lewinsky-Bill Clinton relationship?
14			Many travel writers are guests of the hotels, cruise lines, tourist attractions that they write about. A number of articles have appeared that question the ethics of accepting these favors. Is the practice of your area newspapers to accept subsidies for coverage?
15			A standard January 1 story is about the first baby born in the new year. In Peoria, Ill., two local television stations, WMBD and WEEK, led their listeners to believe that Brooke Rochelle Hamby was the first. She wasn't. Actually, 45 minutes before, a 14-year-old unmarried black girl who hadn't known she was pregnant gave birth in an ambulance. The stations had decided to ignore the birth.      "We've got to have pictures, video," said a TV reporter in defense of the decision. The hospital said it did not have permission to give out the mother's name and that her family did not want the story done.      The director of the Peoria Planned Parenthood office said, "I don't think the public is ever served by withholding such information. We have, as many communities do, teens giving birth. We'd all like to see something done about the problem, but we can't act as if it doesn't happen."      What would you have done if you were the manager of one of the television stations?
16			For a few years, several sportswriters knew that Arthur Ashe had AIDS. The world-famous tennis player, who had devoted his time after his playing days to teaching inner-city youngsters the game, had asked that journalists respect his privacy. But USA Today revealed that he had the disease. The reporter said the story was known too widely to suppress.
17			When Woody Hayes was coaching the Ohio State University football team, a crucial game was nearing the end and his team was behind. An opposing player intercepted an Ohio State pass, and as the player who had made the interception passed Hayes, the enraged coach punched him. ABC-TV, which was televising the game, did not show a replay of the incident, and its announcers did not discuss Hayes' reaction. Should ABC have shown and discussed Hayes' violence?
18			A columnist for the New York Post quoted in his column an anti-Semitic epithet that a New York Yankee baseball player directed at him. Does a journalist use personal experiences in his or her work?
19			Newspapers, magazines and television are charged with overemphasizing athletes and celebrities, with the result that younger readers have aspirations that rarely match their abilities and society's needs. What do you think of the media coverage in your area?
20			Have you discussed in class or found in your reading sufficient information to reach some decisions on a set of personal guidelines regarding the coverage of the personal lives of public figures, the acceptance of favors, taking a second job, using poses and disguises, engaging in an activist journalism, community agenda-setting?