Don't. Touch. Grandpa. (Or: Is It Ok To Break The Rules For A Compelling Reason?)

 

I'm no Liam Neeson, but if you touch this lovely gentleman, I will find you and I will kill you. (Just kidding, I'm a journalist) (Photo: seniors.lovetoknow.com)

        Here is an ethical dilemma I will try to solve in today’s post:

 

        “For at least a year, reporters on your paper have heard rumors that a retirement home is negligent in its care of the elderly.  Your editor asks you to get a job there as a janitor and to report what you find.  What would be your response, and why?”

 

        I would open my own retirement home and bring them all to live with me.

        Seriously, though. As a journalist, I would first try to use traditional open methods to investigate the story. A whole year of hearing rumors, what exactly does that mean? What evidence do we have? What reason do we have to believe this is happening?

        I would look into the retirement home’s records to see if I could find anything on them. I’m afraid that interviewing the staff directly could make them more wary, in case they actually had something to hide. So, I’d try to avoid that at first.

        Trying to get a job as a janitor seems to me like a rather extreme measure to chase a story. A journalist is not an undercover FBI agent. It would also be unethical to get second employment or get involved in the community in a way that could compromise journalistic integrity. 

        Of course, this is a hypothetical situation and there are many factors that I won’t be able to take into account. While I do think that elderly people’s wellbeing is more important than following protocol and guidelines, I’m afraid journalists are not even trained to be undercover and could make everything worse. It is my understanding that it would be best to look into the case as best as I could without letting the retirement home’s staff know I was onto them, and then tell the police I had reasons to believe there was something going on.

I think it’s so easy to rush into a situation when there is an emotional factor at hand, but a false step could easily make the situation worse than before. It is part of life as a journalist to get close to situations where vulnerable people could be at risk, but jumping in and trying to play the hero is hardly the wisest idea.