If you’re really interested in seeing ethics in journalism illustrated and explored, look no further than James L. Brooks’s fantastic 1987 film, “Broadcast News.” Although ostensibly the story revolves around a romantic triangle, the dramatic tension and conflict that drives it is the movement away from substance news to the more profit bearing flash. It’s very prolific as it was released at the dawn of cable news and the 24 hour news cycle, and predicted much of what has come to pass.
Peppered throughout the movie are little ethical dilemmas posed to the troupe of network news reporters who make up the cast of characters. One in particular has relevance today. The Albert Brooks character, standing around the water cooler with his colleagues poses a question about an execution in Florida that allows cameras, would it be appropriate to show footage as they flip the switch? Without missing a beat, the gathered journalists reply absolutely, without a doubt.
This was just a fictional scenario until security camera footage from a failed robbery attempt in Florida surfaced and was made available to local news organizations. Tired of being robbed, the pharmacy employed a retired police officer to protect the store. When the robber entered the store and pulled his gun, the police officer fatally shot him. It was all caught on tape, and at least one local market news station, WFTV, aired the fatal shot – during their afternoon broadcast.
Other agencies in the area showed the tape right up until, but not the moment, the fatal shot was fired. But for thousands of viewers in the area who tuned into WFTV, they watched what amounted to a snuff film.
This was a clear step over the line, but as William Hurt’s character muses towards the end of the film, “it’s hard not to cross it when they keep moving the little sucker.” That’s pretty much the argument that this station’s news director would make. Or, that since the news business has become so profit obsessed, that the line is no longer being drawn by journalists, but rather by accountants and parent companies.
As journalists, it’s important to be willing to draw that line and not move it. Our responsibility to the public far outweighs that to the money men sitting in the corner office. If more people on the news floor had listened to their hearts, and argued whomever it was who made that flawed decision to air the tape in its entirety, then there wouldn’t now be thousands of people with the image of a man being killed seared into their memory.
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