News Ethics

Title The Media's Foul Ball
 Summery In 2003, the Chicago Cubs and the Florida Marlins were playing against each other in hopes of winning the game. The game took a bad turn for a fan who attempted to catch a foul ball but ended up deflecting the ball causing Cub fans to go after him. The media went wild on who this mystery fan was and caused news papers all around to decided if it was right to find out his identity or not. Soon after the media exploded on this a editor on the Sun-Times relieved the mysteries fans names causing questions as if the media went to far or not.
Opinion Given the potential dangers to the man I believe that he should  not be identified by the media at all because it is taking away his privacy and is putting him in harms way. I think this because if the media  identifies the man it would cause more harm then good to him due to the fact that if someone knows his name then they could possibly get ahold of his personal information and give out his information as to his work place, his home, his family and then it would not only be the man in harms way but the people he is connected to also. If the media ever did such a thing like this it would push him back into the the news and take away his freedom.

Title A Suspects "Confession"
Summery In 1996, JonBenet Ramsey was found found dead after she was beaten and strangled to death in Colorado. After years of searching for the killer a  Journalism professor Michael Tracy alerted autherities with information relating with the murder that was sent by email from John Mark Karr. Karr was then arrested in Thailand but the request of U.S officials and later confessed that he did indeed murdered JonBenet Ramsey.
Opinion My answer to the question do you break a confidence with your source if you think it can solve a murder or even protect children all the way around the world is yes I believe if you have information that could help out a investigation then you should break confidence with your source. I think that Michael Tracy did the right thing as to reporting it to the proper authorities when he found the email that could help solve a investigation.

Title Publishing Drunk Driver's Photos
Summary On December 31, 1997, The Andersons News had a banner saying "But please don't drink and drive and risk having your picture published." The editor of the newspaper Don White explained that the newspaper would start publishing drunk driver's photo if they would convicted of drunk driving. This was in hopes of reducing the amount of drunk drivers. Soon he started posted the driver's photos more weekly and under each picture was the persons information.
Opinion I don't believe this is a appropriate policy for a newspaper because the newspaper didn't explain if the person was a 1st offender so someone who had done this before and I think thats unfair. I also think this is wrong because they put out the drivers personal information without permission from the driver and I believe  thats  a volition of someones privacy. Overall i think that the newspaper shouldn't have down this because its crossing the line between stopping DWI and taking away someones privacy.