Legal/Ethical cases
1. As a reporter, you are all set to go on air with a breaking news story. It seems Gov. Dayton is being accused of smuggling drugs from Canada into Minnesota, thus violating federal law. You are going to be interviewing a leading Democratic State Senator. Before you go on air, he says to you that Pawlenty is corrupt, a fink, a fraud, a hypocrite, incompetent, a liar, a moral degenerate, a pervert, a pocketer of public funds, a scoundrel, unethical and a villain. Do you put this Senator on the air live knowing that he might repeat these claims on air? Why/why not?
2. You are a reporter for a local TV station. You pick up on a breaking story. Sen. John McCain has just been arrested for rape. National codes of ethics for radio and television stations state that the name of a rape victim should be withheld. Your station also follows this policy. As you are ready to go on air, your editor barges into your office and says "change the story! McCain is accused of raping Sarah Palin!" Will you change the story to include the name of the supposed rape victim? Why/why not?