THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT

The Role of Government

The Role of Government

Introduction

Government has played a pervasive and largely overlooked role in journalists' ethical decision making. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules governing programme content, and a libel law system run amok, are only two ways government influences journalists' behaviour. This substitution of government ethics for private ethics creates minimum standards of conduct rather than challenging journalists to an ethical ideal. More subtly, government erects structural barriers to the development of the very technologies (like cable TV) that can offer journalists a more ethically hospitable environment. In the information age, ethicists will need to be aware of, and wary of, government attempts to control development of the very media that hold the greatest ethical promise. (Emord, 1991)

Acting ethically can be a tension-filled endeavour for even the most accomplished practitioner of the journalistic trade. Among the myriad forces tugging at journalists, two spring immediately to mind: First is the tension inherent in applying scholarly, high-minded principles to a workmanlike craft. That strain is heightened by the fact that practical, tough-minded journalists often encounter ethics in the person of philosopher academicians speaking in the professorial tongues of abstraction and theory. Second is the tension between acting ethically and acting according to the dictates of one's medium. Those dictates, or conventions, are almost invariably aimed at securing an audience large enough to turn a profit. The dictates of broadcast television news, as we know, demand that stories be told in a way that is highly visual, entertaining, and even sensational. (Bezanson, Cranberg & Soloski, 1987)

In the traditional view, then, the two preeminent ethical tensions are framed in the image of a journalist with a tiny figure perched on each shoulder. On one shoulder is the angel of ethics, speaking in whispers that are hard to fathom and perhaps not even entirely welcome. On the other is the devil of commerce, urging the journalist to sell his or her ethical soul in exchange for the requisite audience and the accompanying professional and material rewards.

This image, however, ignores another force that is playing an increasingly important but overlooked role in undermining the development of journalistic ethics. That force is government and its effect on ethical decision making is unmistakable (Emord, 1991). Government interferes in the formation of journalistic ethics in two ways. The first is through laws and regulations that affect the programme content of broadcast media, and then affect the editorial process for all journalists in the areas of defamation and invasion of privacy. This phenomenon can be called the substitution of government ethics for private ethics because these government mandates tend to supersede journalists' own standards as the basis for editorial decision making.

The second (and more subtle) way government interferes in the ethics process is by creating structural barriers to the development of the technologies that may be more hospitable to ethical conduct. Cable television, for example, seems to offer an environment with more opportunities for the practice of ethical journalism compared to the broadcast ...