The Paper's Ethical Dilemmas

Makenzie Piatt
mp689012@ohio.edu 

Ron Howard’s “The Paper” represents the chaotic and eventful days in a journalist’s professional and personal life. Michael Keaton plays the main character, Henry, a newspaper editor for The New York Sun. While Henry loves his job, his pregnant wife is upset about the long hours he spends at the office and low pay. While he has his own personal problems, the newspaper is becoming more unpopular by the day. His managing editor, Alicia, is in a constant power struggle with Henry because of their disagreement on stories. Henry and other important characters face multiple ethical conflicts throughout the movie. Henry and the other journalists had to make decisions that could have potentially harmed others. The characters faced many ethical dilemmas listed in SPJ’s Code of Ethics. 

Seek Truth and Report It:

A huge story was circulating in the area about two African American teens accused of murdering two businessmen in Brooklyn. Henry overheard NYPD discussing the arrest and believed it to be wrong, but Alicia wanted to publish an article about the teens being guilty of the crime. Henry faced tough decisions and even stole information about the case from another newspaper (which is not ethical). But, he insisted on getting to the bottom of the case and sought the truth of the story. His actions were unethical, and no journalist should recreate them, but his main intention was to seek the truth of the story. The managing editor, Alicia, agreed to put false information on the cover of The Sun even though she knew it was false. After realizing what she was doing wrong she stopped the presses, but she was faced with the same ethical dilemma. 

  

Minimize Harm:

Henry’s intentions were to minimize the harm, by providing the right story and making sure the teens were not illustrated as criminals. Unfortunately, conflicts occurred within his newspaper’s employees and he upset his family and wife by not putting her as a first priority. While he ultimately minimized the harm for the teens in trouble, the newspaper staff created their own chaos. People were injured, shot and taken to hospitals. The journalists working for The Sun did not minimize harm between each other.

Act Independently:

Journalists should avoid conflicts of interest. Henry had a personal conflict with the rival newspaper company, which created unethical actions and him disrespecting other journalists. Although some of his actions were unethical, he did keep in mind his main goal to serve to the public. Henry took pride in his newspaper, and made sure to have accurate and truthful stories. Even though his newspaper had a bad reputation, he worked hard to deliver important news.

Be Accountable and Transparent:

Although it took some convincing, Alicia realized her mistake about the front page of the paper and corrected it. It may not have been as promptly as it should’ve been, but the change was made so the story was accurate.

Henry questioned the accuracy of the story from the beginning, and looked into the truth. He took responsibility for what The Sun published, and wanted to make sure it was right.