Ethics Newsline®

Charges of Bias, Deception, and Discrimination Featured in Press-Ethics Reports

Jun 16th, 2008 • Posted in: News

Week’s news includes allegations of sexism, a controversy over a phony ad designed to test Web effectiveness, and accusations that a Canadian magazine violated human-rights laws

VARIOUS DATELINES
Media-ethics stories garnered headlines last week. Among the stories:

• Allegations of sexism in the coverage of the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton flared again last week with CBS News anchor Katie Couric claiming that Sen. Clinton received “some of the most unfair, hostile coverage I’ve ever seen.” MSNBC cable host Keith Olbermann rejected Couric’s sexism charge as “nonsense.”
• A fake airline ad, designed to test the reach of the website for the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News, has fueled a media-ethics controversy. The ad for a nonexistent company called Derrie-Air claimed that the airline had a new way to reduce the carbon footprint of air travel — by charging travelers based on their weight. The point was to see how many people who viewed the ad actually “clicked through” to the site, and to gauge the effectiveness of print and Web advertising. But critics argue that the ad carried no disclaimer, although there was a “pulling your leg admission” on the click-through site. “It is clearly deception,” Bob Steele, the Nelson Poynter Scholar for Journalism Values at the Poynter Institute, told newspaper trade journal Editor & Publisher. “Newspapers should not be in the business of deception. I can’t imagine the Inquirer and Daily News would run fake ads from other companies.” The newspapers did not say whether they would run the ad again.
• Canadian authorities are debating whether an article in the popular magazine Maclean’s spread hatred against Muslims. The CBC reports that the article, an excerpt from a book, posits that Islam is a threat to North American institutions and values. A group called the Canadian Islamic Congress complained to human rights authorities, saying the article violates British Columbia’s human rights code, which stipulates that a person may not publish anything that discriminates against a group or exposes a group or person to hatred or contempt. Lawyers for Maclean’s say the article is protected by the right of free speech.

Sources: ABC, June 12 — Editor & Publisher, June 12 — CBC, June 12.

For more information, see: Related Newsline story, June 2 — Related Newsline story, May 19 — Related Newsline story, Apr. 14 — Related Newsline story, Oct. 29, 2007 — Related Newsline story, Oct. 15, 2007 — Derrie-Air ad site.

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1. Ethics Newsline® » News » FCC May Crack Down on Product Placement in TV Shows on June 30th, 2008 at 6:29 pm:

   [...] more information, see: Related Newsline story, June 16 — Related Newsline story, May 27 — Related Newsline story, May 19 [...]

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