It seems that most of the news stories I read (or remember reading..or care about reading) has to do something with scandal. Oh muckraking.
What I found interesting about the Barry Bonds article is thinking... How do you write something ethically that is centered around something else that is ethically debated? I dont feel like I said that very eloquently...but Ill try to explain.
Last year in my ethic's class, as part of the CORE for school,our final group project was 'Enhancement' and we could pick a subtopic. One of the boys in my group, who is a USF baseball player chose Steroids. He had a very convincing argument that he was okay with steroids. That enhancement is all around, from Botox to diet pills, it was a part of modernization. And also...major league baseball takes a lot of skill and hard work and its not like a normal person is going to hit a pitch from a major league pitcher if they are on steroids or not. He was basically justifying the fact that major league baseball players taking steroids, isn't a big deal. That taking them isn't an ethical issue. Because whether or not you take steriods, if you aren't at that level to begin with you aren't going to be able to hit a major league pitch.
This is very interesting
So if he were the journalist writing the story on Bonds as he approaches the homerun record, he would not talk about how it would be tainted due to steriod use. but if there were a writer who had strong opinions that the ethics of steriods are extremely wrong, then the story will be centered about that. It was like in the reading where we see that journalists bring their own opinions and ideas to a story and from that will emphasis certain parts, discount otheres and even completely ignore some.
So the Chronicle does have a fine line to walk. whether they are going to go back on their stories from the past, or how they will approach the ones in the future.
It makes you think about each article that is written. What the authors personal ethics are behind the story. Although all stories are suppose to be fair and balanced, there most likely is some other story behind it, the authors own ideals and ethics.
1 comment:
I have no doubt that sportswriters writing about Bonds advance on Hank Aaron's homerun record will face some ethical issues, though I'm not quite sure what they will be. Interviewing, when asking Bonds tough questions might spoil the interview? Or is it balancing the writing, given all the information about his probable steroid use? Perhaps, there is no problem because everyone knows the story. We'll see.
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