seven years of Journalism school (undergrad and graduate), and not once was I required to take an ethics class. It wasn't until I ran off to do the monk thing that I engaged myself with ethics and philosophical pursuits. And, thinking back to Fr. Sebastian's introduction to ethics, I'm still trying to practice the virtue of not exploding spontaneously after Couric's feature on immigration.
Having worked behind the scenes in broadcast news, it's interesting how little of the editorial decisions that producers make ever transcend into the audiences perception. Their decisions are subtle, the kind of things that most people don't even notice. But don't be mistaken, the stories and interviews chosen go through a hard lens several times before they hit the airwaves. For every interview you see, there's probably ten other that got deleted on the desk top during the editing and news gathering stage.
Harping the point at the end of the previous post, it's a shame that producers and managing editors ignore true heart felt stories. Thank goodness for groups like the Movement Vision Lab, striving to make sure that the stories of real humanity are told; not stories of hard-lined rhetoric, but stories that can move us toward a stronger, more solid community that affords opportunity for all.
Check out their recent pos that tells the story of one New American striving to make our country and world a better place.
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