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Cal Mccaffrey Ethical Issues Essay

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Journalists are required to hold up certain ethical and legal responsibilities while on the job. They are not supposed to have conflicts of interest, can not trespass, have to minimize harm, avoid invasion of privacy, etc. While watching, “State of Play” we constantly see Cal McCaffrey, a journalist for the Washington Globe and the main character, break ethical and legal responsibilities that journalists are supposed to hold up. Specifically, he trespasses, has a huge conflict of interest, and invades the privacy of others. We learn early on in the film that McCaffrey has a conflict of interest with the story he is reporting on. Stephen Collins, a Senator from Pennsylvania, is McCaffrey’s old college roomate whom he has stayed in touch with for years. He also had an affair with Collins’ wife. When the story hits that Collins may have had an affair with Sonia Baker, his head researcher, McCaffrey does not say anything. The editor of the paper says to McCaffrey, “Why do you only bring me stories about Collins when he is looking for good publicity before an election?” McCaffrey does not really say anything to this and does not report on the story. However, when the story that McCaffrey is working becomes connected to the Collins’ Affair story, he tries to help Collins and gives him many opportunities to get ahead of things that he would not do for anything else. …show more content…

One specific time comes to mind when he goes to the Medical Examiner’s office to try and get information off of one of the victims in his story. McCaffrey continues to badger the Medical Examiner for information about what may have happened and she does not want to give him anything because she could lose her job. McCaffrey then goes on to look through the victim’s belongings and takes down some numbers from his cell phone. This is not ethical, or legal, once again McCaffrey disobeys the legal system and the ethics of

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