Sunday, September 8, 2013

The Code? Crossing the Line? Unimportant News?

Cody Linn
cl219110@ohio.edu


Code or Law?

An ethics code and the law are two separate ideas. The law is a standard that if you violate is usually followed with a punishment. Such as if you are caught littering, you are fined $500. The ethics code is a different ballgame.

The ethics code is generally a set of standards that you hold yourself to that if you fail to follow you violate your morals and you are more than likely ashamed of yourself for violating your principles. Although there could be a punishment if you violate your employer’s code, I like to think of the code as your own moralistic values that you do not go below.

Let’s think of the law and code in terms of the game of baseball. Baseball has a set of written rules, “the law.” “The law” includes such rules as if you have the ball in your glove and tag a base runner not on a base then the runner is out, if the batter accumulates three strikes, the batter is out and if the pitcher throws four balls the batter goes to first base. But baseball has a set of unwritten rules that I consider “the code,” lines that you just do not cross. Two of these rules include a base runner running through the pitcher’s mound after being called out, with the other being the pitcher throwing a pitch at the batter’s head. You just do not do it. These two articles, from Baseball Almanac and Yahoo! Sports, give more info and list some of these rules.

When is the line crossed? What happens if it is crossed?
                                                                Is this crossing the line?
                                                              Courtesy of WebProNews

It seems like the line moves every so often, but when is the line crossed? Is it the first time you do something wrong? Do you get a warning or are you fired after the first offense? With some of the public having trust issues with the media, it is almost certain after your first mistrust to the public, your reputation could be ruined. With the amount of news outlets available at the public’s fingertips, they can easily go elsewhere for their news.

One instance that I have seen the line crossed was when The New York Post published a photo on page 1 of a man moments before he was hit and killed by a train. In my opinion, putting such a picture on the front page is disturbing and can cause emotional harm to the victim’s family. This would have crossed the line in my ethics code. If they had published it inside the paper with prior warning as the photo is graphic, I would have slightly okay with it and it would have pushed my line, but page 1 is too much.

Important or not?
                                                                     Is this news?  
                                                           Courtesy of Rich Barnes
                                                             
According to a Pew Research survey, 68 percent of Americans feel that the media focus on unimportant stories whereas only 28 percent feel just the opposite. I can see where people are coming from in respect to the reporting of unimportant stories. ESPN is violator of this issue in respect to their coverage of Tim Tebow.


Tim Tebow is a great human being and that cannot be understated, but not everything that he does is a story. For example, one of the stories they showed on their mainstay show, SportsCenter, involved Tim running across the New York Jetspractice field shirtless in the rain. The story is completely irrelevant to the sports world. Personally, I would rather see a story about an injury report, a story about a player who is performing well for their team or highlights from a game, whether it be baseball, football, etc. News organizations need to realize that just because someone or something is popular, the audience would rather see something that is news instead of something that is not of relevance.

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