PressEthic

On September 7, recall supporters trying to oust Spokane, Washington Mayor Jim West collected the 12,700 names needed for a recall, according to the Spokesman-Review.

The recall stems, in part, from an undercover investigation spearheaded by the S-R (in a separate investigation by the paper, two sources also claimed the mayor sexually abused them before elected to office). After contacting an 18 year-old high school student who said he had sex with West after meeting him in an online chat room, the paper hired a computer forensic expert to pose as a 17 year-old in the same Gay.com chat room to see whether West was enticing underage men with the trappings of political office. As it turns out, he offered the consultant “autographed sports memorabilia, prime seats for Seahawks and Mariners games, help getting into college, an internship job in the Spokane mayor’s office and the promise of trips to Washington, D.C”, according to the S-R.

The investigation raises several questions: is it ethical for a newspaper to conduct a sting? Do the ends justify the means? S-R readers overwhelmingly said yes. According to the nearby Oregonian, “Hundreds of e-mails and phone calls were running at least 8 to 1 in favor of the newspaper.” A journalist at the same paper thought otherwise: “It's a pity they had to undercut the credibility of an otherwise fair and relevant report by setting up a phony identity and luring West into a trap.”

Yet it's not clear what "fair and relevant report" the journalist is referring to. The unsubstantiated story of an 18-year old high school student? The testimony of the sexual-abuse victims? In some ways, they're different reports altogether, yet the evidence of public corruption gleaned from the sting is indisputable. While controversial in its methodology, it gave the story legitimacy that it wouldn't have had otherwise.

Ultimately, these issues are intensely local, and a simple right/wrong answer doesn’t seem all that applicable.Yet the public has obviously benefited, as proven by its impetus to push for a recall.