What is the ethics at issue here, and if this kind of secret recording under an assumed identity is unethical, how unethical is it? I assume it is a violation of journalistic ethics and can understand why it would be. On the other hand, if an undercover cop gets the goods on a mobster by secretly recording a conversation under false pret…
What is the ethics at issue here, and if this kind of secret recording under an assumed identity is unethical, how unethical is it? I assume it is a violation of journalistic ethics and can understand why it would be. On the other hand, if an undercover cop gets the goods on a mobster by secretly recording a conversation under false pretenses, that is simply a fulfillment of professional duties, and we would hardly consider it to be unethical. Doing this as a kind of saboteur in service of revealing important truths does not clearly fall under either of this paradigms of unethical or ethical behavior even though it might strike one as a bit shady. IMO, the question of ethics here is not clear cut. I am not comfortable with it, but neither do I feel a “sense of outrage.”
What is the ethics at issue here, and if this kind of secret recording under an assumed identity is unethical, how unethical is it? I assume it is a violation of journalistic ethics and can understand why it would be. On the other hand, if an undercover cop gets the goods on a mobster by secretly recording a conversation under false pretenses, that is simply a fulfillment of professional duties, and we would hardly consider it to be unethical. Doing this as a kind of saboteur in service of revealing important truths does not clearly fall under either of this paradigms of unethical or ethical behavior even though it might strike one as a bit shady. IMO, the question of ethics here is not clear cut. I am not comfortable with it, but neither do I feel a “sense of outrage.”