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The Spj's Code Of Ethics In NASCAR

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Rawls’ ethics theory suggests that the morally correct action is the one that favors the disadvantaged. In this case, because the drivers’ safety is placed at risk by the more powerful organization of NASCAR, the drivers become the disadvantaged. It, therefore, becomes the responsibilities of all people to assure the safety of the NASCAR drivers, but only the journalists have the ability to access, assess, and distribute the information necessary to create the change to do so. Also, according to the SPJ’s code of ethics, the duties of a journalist are to seek the truth and report it, to minimize harm, to act independently, and to be accountable and transparent (spj). All of these guiding principles are applicable in this case. These principles …show more content…

It is also, as previously stated, a journalist’s job to minimize harm. While that often means to treat story subjects with respect, it can be also interpreted to mean that they should look into and write the stories that will reduce the amount of damage inflicted in people’s lives overall, like their story would have done by inciting the demand to improve safety regulations in NASCAR. The journalists should have continued to try to gain access to the autopsy photos -- which they did -- so that they would have been able to act independently of what the original investigation already told them. They could have taken what NASCAR’s report said as truth, written a story about it, and published it without any issues. Yet, their decision to verify what they were they were being told is not only one of their journalistic duties, but a sign of their commitment to both their audience and high-quality journalism. The one principle that the journalists struggled with was the final one, acting …show more content…

However, this issue becomes even more conflicted with the rise of the internet, where things like grisly photos of deaths can be easily found and never truly erased. Although the Sentinel had tried to explain that they had no intention of publishing the photos, how could Earnhardt’s family know for certain that their loved one’s autopsy photos wouldn’t be printed on the front page the next day? Newspapers are still businesses, and placing graphic images or headlines on the front page is a reliable way to generate revenue and many papers have done it before, regardless of any journalistic integrity. The Earnhardts would have had to just rely on blind faith of the Sentinel to do as they said. This is a clear concern to have, and this is why the Sentinel failed in their responsibility to communicate with the Earnhardts and to be transparent enough to have the trust of the public. There was also the possibility that -- if the family had entrusted the paper with the autopsy photos, and the paper did not publish them, just as they promised -- someone could gain access to the Sentinel’s system and release the photos anyways. The paper would just have to do damage control while Earnhardt’s family is risked with seeing the autopsy photos at any point across the internet. Considering factors like these, it is clear that the family had a justifiable right to

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