Hi,
“Absence of Malice” is a great movie which cynically portrayed several important ethical issues of Journalism.
In my opinion, two journalistic sins which a female news reporter, Megan Carter, commit are as follows:
First sin was that Carter did not contact Michael Gallagher before she publish the article that Gallagher is suspected of having something to do with the death of Joey Diaz. He did not have a chance to express his notion about the article and point out what is not true. As a result, Gallagher got significant damages on his business because of her article. Journalists must take maximum care when they publish articles about private individuals because it causes significant damages on them. It is difficult to recover one’s reputation because “You say somebody’s guilty, everybody believes you. You say he’s innocent, nobody cares.” Of course, private individuals can sue the publisher if the article revealed to be wrong. However, it requires many time and cost for private individuals as Pat Intrieri told the class.
Second sin was that Carter disregarded the will of her news source. Teresa Peron, who was a girl friend of Gallagher and tried to testify his alibi, asked Carter not to write her story because she was afraid that the article will reveal the fact that she had an abortion. Peron was a Catholic and abortion was prohibited. However, Carter published the article and Person commits a suicide. Journalists must respect the notion of their news sources, or their articles generate unintended results.
I think another sin Carter made was that she became close relationship with Gallagher. In many cases, close relationship between reporters and their news source had scandal or bad-endings because they cannot see things rightly. Journalists should keep proper relationships with their news sources, especially if they are male and female.
KEI
