Ethics, The Shade of Gray: How much is too much?

Although I normally enjoy fun and uplifting topics, this week I am going to focus in on the questionable and potentially dark side of public relations: ethics. Now I’m sure somewhere out there is a place where everyone has the same definition of ethics and follows those guidelines perfectly without questioning what it means to cross the line (haha yeah right, get real). If anyone out there can actually prove my last sentence to be true I will pay you a billion dollars and do your homework for the rest of the semester. Let’s face it; ethics is a sticky subject, especially in the media publicity world where millions of viewers are watching your every move.

Like I mentioned last week, the focus of my blog is the NBC News Publicity Department. Now within this department lies “NBC Dateline,” which consists of the popular series “To Catch a Predator.” The series involves trapping men who are believed to be trying to have sexual encounters over the internet with minors. I’m sure I speak for many when I say that each episode made me cringe at the fact that there are actually people out there who would attempt to perform these disturbing acts. Although this series had good intentions, one episode started a huge controversy that would end in court. In 2008, the case Conradt v. NBC Universal began when Patricia Conradt sued the show for $100 million alleging that “NBC Dateline” was responsible for her brother, Louis Conradt, suicide back in 2006. Louis, who was being featured on the show as a predator for soliciting sex from a minor on the Internet, took his own life after being unable to face the humiliation and public spectacle of the episode airing.

As a result of this case the main ethical question presented seemed to be: when do journalist and the media cross the line? There is no doubt that the show had good intentions, however people do have the right to privacy and evasion of this privacy can potentially lead to a danger zone. However, when a corporation finds itself in the midst of an ethical dilemma the way they handle it can say a lot. In this case, rather than going to trial NBC settled for an undisclosed sum. Personally, I believe this was a smart public relations move. Rather than letting this case progress and potentially catch the mainstream media’s eye, NBC took credit for their actions and rewarded the family. In addition, NBC has taught us all an important lesson: journalist and the media NEED to take caution when distinguishing the line between making news and reporting news.

I personally feel that ethics is something learned over time and there are going to be moments where ones ethics are going to be questioned. However, it’s what you do once you believe that line was crossed that matters (as well as not making the same mistake twice). Like I mentioned before there is no such thing as an ideal ethical world, but PR practitioners should try their best to stay away from that line. What do you all think? Was “NBC Dateline” at fault for this incident? Did they cross the line? The thing is no two answers will be the same, which is why ethics has always been considered a “shade of gray.”