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Journalism Ethics by Court Decree: The Supreme Court on the Proper Practice of Journalism PDF

276 Pages·2008·3.195 MB·English
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Law and Society Recent Scholarship Edited by Melvin I. Urofsky A Series from LFB Scholarly http://avaxhome.ws/blogs/ChrisRedfield This page intentionally left blank Journalism Ethics by Court Decree The Supreme Court on the Proper Practice of Journalism John C. Watson LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC New York 2008 Copyright © 2008 by LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC All rights reserved. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Watson, John C., 1954- Journalism ethics by court decree : the Supreme Court on the proper practice of journalism / John C. Watson ; edited by Melvin I. Urofsky. p. cm. -- (Law and society, recent scholarship) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-59332-266-3 (alk. paper) 1. Journalists--Legal status, laws, etc. 2. Journalistic ethics--United States. 3. United States. Supreme Court. 4. Press law--United States. I. Urofsky, Melvin I. II. Title. KF2750.W38 2008 343.7309'98--dc22 2008004168 ISBN 978-1-59332-266-3 Printed on acid-free 250-year-life paper. Manufactured in the United States of America. Table of Contents Preface and Acknowledgements vii Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Review Of The Literature.........................................................................3 Law and Morality 3 Imposing Ethics by Law 9 Law and Ethical Journalism 10 Five Fundamental Ethical Principles......................................................17 Chapter 2 Making Journalism Ethical: Codes, Commissions, and Councils 23 Early Codes of Ethics.............................................................................24 Modern Codes of Ethics.........................................................................29 Codes and Lawyers................................................................................34 The Hutchins Commission.....................................................................41 The Warren and Kerner Commissions...................................................55 National News Council...........................................................................57 Summary and Conclusion.......................................................................61 Chapter 3 Truth and Truth Telling: First Principle and Prime Directive 65 Times v. Sullivan: Undervaluing Truth...................................................68 Actual Malice and Pragmatic Instrumentalism.......................................76 v vi Table of Contexts Sullivan’s Progeny..................................................................................80 Expanding Protection of Falsehood........................................................85 Limiting Protection of Falsehood...........................................................88 Masson v. The New Yorker....................................................................94 Treatments of Truth Beyond Libel.........................................................97 Summary and Conclusions...................................................................103 Chapter 4 Privacy: A Matter of Morality, Ethics and Law 109 Privacy in Journalism Ethics Codes.....................................................112 False Light and Appropriation..............................................................118 Intrusion Upon Seclusion.....................................................................121 Rape Victim Privacy.............................................................................126 Juveniles’ Privacy.................................................................................130 Extending the Shield of Privacy...........................................................132 Summary and Conclusion.....................................................................142 Chapter 5 Civic Responsibility: A Casualty of Ethical Principle 147 Ethical Directives to Break the Law.....................................................149 Moral Duty to Obey the Law................................................................151 Ethical Justification for Lawless Conduct............................................155 Beyond the Reach of Law....................................................................160 Within the Grasp of Equity...................................................................169 Obeying the Law: An Emerging Ethical Principle...............................175 Summary and Conclusion.....................................................................177 Chapter 6 Conclusions and Recommendations 179 Court-Imposed Ethical Standards.........................................................183 Court Rulings Affirm and Undermine Ethics.......................................184 Eroding the Distinction Between Law and Ethics................................185 Ramifications of Court-Created Ethics.................................................187 Bibliography 189 Index 199 Endnotes 203 Preface and Acknowledgements “You’re gonna to have to serve somebody,” is a line of gospel I heard countless times from the Baptist preachers of my youth. It returns to me now as I complete this book. Just as those ministers sought to impress upon their flocks the necessity of choosing to serve a higher purpose, this book seeks to impress that counsel on professional journalists. In both instances a failure to choose is not a decision to not serve, but actually a choice to serve a lesser purpose; because at the end of the day we all will have served somebody. Journalists arguably have chosen to serve the public interest and do so by following their codes of ethics. But this often is neither true service nor true choice because the profession has chosen to retain the freedom to ignore the codes because freedom is a more cherished value. And so there is no real decision to serve. In this void, the government, through the U.S. Supreme Court’s rulings, is being served by the press. These rulings, without any devious intent or wicked conspiracy, are charting the path journalists take by allowing some practices or by imposing or permitting penalties for others. Clearly, some of the directions taken by the Court serve the public interest. Others may not. In either case, these are matters better left in the hands of journalists. The difference between servitude and service is voluntary choice. It may be that journalists have failed to grasp their responsibilities because they do not recognize that someone else is in the process of doing it for them. I hope this book leads to recognition and then perhaps a firm decision about whom we will serve and how we will do it. vii viii Preface and Acknowledgements I must express gratitude here to my wife Laura St. Martin for supporting me as I made the transition from 21 years of daily newspaper work into an often rewarding career in the academic world. She has endured much and has always empowered me and enriched by life in the most important ways. I also thank my daughters, Taylor, Mikaela and Samantha for giving me three more excellent reasons to smile when I wake up each morning. I also offer gratitude to all those who helped me through the long period of transition from newsroom to classroom. Prominent among them are Professor Ruth Walden, The Freedom Forum, and R.S. Zaharna and Rodger Streitmatter, my colleagues at American University. CHAPTER 1 Introduction For nearly a century, journalism critics have been warning the American news media that if they do not practice their craft ethically and with a greater sense of social responsibility, they risk having the law impose ethics or other systems of moral control on them. One of the most articulate and well-reasoned of these warnings was sounded in 1947 by the Commission on Freedom of the Press. This privately assembled panel of thirteen intellectuals was led by University of Chicago Chancellor Robert Maynard Hutchins and usually is referred to as the Hutchins Commission. It conducted a two-year study of the American mass media and issued criticism and warnings in a report titled “A Free and Responsible Press, A General Report on Mass Communication: Newspaper, Radio, Motion Pictures, Magazines and Books.”1 Similar but less expansive criticism that focused primarily on the news media’s handling of their responsibilities to the larger society and warnings about government action to remedy irresponsible journalism were made by the Warren Commission in 1964,2 the Kerner Commission in 1968,3 and The Twentieth Century Fund Task Force in 1972.4 The passage of time has proved those warnings to be portents. This book chronicles pivotal moments in the transformation of some ethical matters into law. Clearly the law has not been used to impose ethical standards on the news media on a wholesale basis. The United States does not have a code of journalistic responsibility enshrined in law or an agency to 1

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