PressEthic

Saddam Hussein’s trial was broadcast yesterday on Iraqi television. But it was not live TV. Officials imposed at least a 20-minute delay. Why?

A journalist from the Guardian is missing in Iraq. The paper says he has been kidnapped. How should the media cover this kind of hostage taking?

Relatives think that a 4-year old girl “is a virtual prisoner in her own home,” because of the media surrounding her. So what does the New York Times do to fix that? The paper just decided to run the story on the Front Page of its Metro section.

About one year ago, the Pentagon launched a television channel. Yesterday, CNN ran a story about it, questioning its objectivity. According the people interviewed in the story, the Pentagon Channel may violate a law that forbids government propaganda within the United States.

Last Saturday, a cameraman from the Associated Press filmed two policemen beating a 64-year old person in a street of New Orleans. Would this event be in the news had the video not existed?

There are many important stories in the news these days: the aftermath of two devastating hurricanes, two ongoing wars with terrorist attacks almost everyday, and two new judges in the Supreme Court. But the NBC Nightly News started its broadcast tonight with a law that was passed eight years ago in Oregon, allowing doctor-assisted suicide.

For people who care about ethics, it is always good when the media does some introspection and criticizes it work. But it is even better if the media really means what it says in such stories.

The US government produces video stories to promote its policies. The problem is that they look exactly like real journalistic stories. And the government seems to expect TV stations to broadcast them just like any other news story.

First Lady Laura Bush will appear in the show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. The sequence was taped earlier this week, during Ms Bush’s visit to Mississippi. What should journalists think about that?

The Arab media may be against the US. But is that the real problem?

Bill O'Reilly wishes Katrina had flooded the UN building. Should he apologize for this comment? 

New York Magazine publishes this week "an impertinent look at other people's paychecks". Is that ethical?

A journalist working for the New York Times was killed today in Iraq. Should this death make journalists leave Iraq? Is it ethical to replace them by Iraqi journalists?

An editorialist says a CNN producer asked him to get angry before appearing on the air for an interview related to Katrina. Is this fair journalism?

I thought war was a violent and complicated thing. But for Yahoo, it seems to be something fun that can be appealing to young viewers.