Blog

Ethical boundaries–paying for interviews: “Reporters working with vulnerable populations, particularly in conflict situations, often face a high-stakes predicament: The job of bearing witness demands of us the highest ethical standards,” writes Annie Hylton. “At the same time, we confront extreme suffering, and even our pocket change might change someone’s circumstances, […]

A path to public trust: The Guardian’s editor-in-chief tells Julia Belluz that America needs the press. “We can’t count on the judges in a way we could,” says Alan Rusbridger. “Congress is not doing its job. The checks and balances we thought existed in society are not there, and it’s […]

The problem with native advertising: It’s paid advertising that looks like legitimate staff-written content and deceptive, writes Joshua Carroll. “The commotion over the sponsored pieces raises questions not just about the ethics of native advertising, but about news providers’ broader relationship with governments.” It’s also called advertorials and used in […]

Covering deadly cold weather: Midwest reporters face a daunting challenge when temperatures drop to 30 below with wind chills at 55 below. “So how do you cover a story about how dangerous it is to be outside when it’s too dangerous to be outside?” asks Tom Jones. Visit the […]

Rethinking celebrity journalism: Covering the foibles of celebrities is like pandering to lurid curiosity, says a story in the Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists archives. Instead, look for entertaining stories about men and women in business, commerce and industry who take themselves so seriously.   Visit the Ethics AdviceLine blog […]

Media jumping to conclusions: The story about an encounter between Covington Catholic students and a Native American elder went global, and many in the media got it wrong. “What responsible journalists do in such instances is exactly what they did here,” writes Kelly Hawes. “They keep reporting. They keep asking […]

Justifying photos of death: New York Times photos of a terror attack on a Nairobi hotel, leaving 21 dead, were called distasteful, writes Eyder Peralta. The Times responds that “it is important to give our readers a clear picture of the horror of an attack like this,” adding that the […]

Vanishing media ombudsmen: The Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists laments the loss of sharp-eyed ombudsmen and media writers like Margaret Sullivan. “You’d think an ombudsman would be most useful in a time of change, especially in a time of budget-cutting and layoffs — just to be sure the public interest is […]

Cloud cyberattacks growing: Businesses can fail to identify risks and control them, writes Aseem Rastogi. “While cloud service providers are responsible for protecting the cloud infrastructure,” he writes, “customers must monitor other vulnerabilities as attackers will look for easy targets…. Integrated or unified solutions that provide visibility across the organization’s […]

Editors acting unethically: A web editor tells the Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists that her boss is pressuring her to mention an advertiser in a story. She is thinking of quitting. From a story in AdviceLine archives by David Craig.   Visit the Ethics AdviceLine blog for more.