Ethics Case Study

One thing that has always been a problem from the start of what we now call people being “celebrities”, is people feeling  two things about them, one that they no longer deserve privacy because of their celebrity status, and two they can get away with doing whatever they want because they are untouchable.

I think that the amount of information that happened right after Kobe Bryant’s death was all too fast  to happen. Right from when the crash happened, news sources all rushed to be the first to break the story, they even  aired the news before his family even got news of what had happened.What was unethical was not only to air out the allegations of his sexual assault, but to air out all the news at one time without even giving his family time to grevie the loss of their husband/father.

I think what news reporters fail to realize at the time of their reporting, whether it be good or bad, is that  behind each of  these “celebrity” stories is a person and with that person their family.  But at the same time I think that  the allegations against Kobe Bryant in the past were in fact mostly ignored because of his status and legacy as a basketball player and that also isn’t right.

Sexual assault is a serious probelm no matter who it is done by or too, a regular person or one who  has celebrity status.  All that being swept under the rug during his lifetime is something that never should have happened as everyone should be held accountable for doing such disgusting acts. 

I do also think that just a mere couple hours  after his death is not enough time to drop a story like that. If she really wanted to drop this story and bring awareness to the situation, she could have done it  anytime while he was alive, waiting a couple hours after his death is nothing more than a reporter trying  to bring traction to their website and their name. Exposing things only because you want to make buzz and start an uproar is not something that should be awarded  to any reporter.

In the few hours after it happened many details were not even clear yet, if he was really dead, who was in the plane with him, what had happened and even if his wife and family knew what had happened. So to go out and tweet such a thing with no background is what is viewed as unethical, something that reporters should always aim to do is be respectful about the people they are writing  about.

I think even a day or so is enough time to wait to make sure the full story is cleared and to know what what really happened, if he had passed away or not and even then a sort of condolences to his family being sent out before talking about the other story is the proper way to deal with a situation such as this one. I also believe that there is no limit to truth telling and everyone regardless of their status as a celebrity  or not  should be held accountable for their actions.