Ethics = Morals = God

   There is no doubt in most persons' minds that ethics and morals are complementary to each other. Something in our minds pushes us to feel guilty when we steal or lie, then we have to convince ourselves it was fine or seek restitution for what we did. This is called conscience: having morals, for some strange reason, embedded in our minds and hearts. We can easily ignore them. Yet that is what creates all of the evil, misery, and confusion in our world, throwing away what we know is right. Throwing away truth. And, I must add my own bias, throwing away the Giver of truth: God.

   If morals, conscience, ethics seem to live buried in each of us, then it follows that we all must need to follow them in some way, we simply choose not to do so. And in continually choosing to ignore morals, it becomes harder and harder to know what is truly ethical and how to be that way. We become confused when we are presented with dilemmas such as telling the truth to a friend's parent and our parents when the friend has done something wrong. Keeping the secret for the friend would preserve your relationship for a while, but undoubtedly both would begin to lose trust in each other. If someone is willing to lie for you, who's to say they aren't going to lie to you. Both friends would have violated their consciences. They did not really treat others the way they want to be treated. They are being unethical. The only ethical way to go about this dilemma is to be willing to lose a friend in order to do what's moral and right. You must tell you friend's parents and your own.


   It is not only in personal ways that we must live ethically and morally. We must all live and work treating others the way we would want to be treated. Journalism is no exception. Respecting other persons and their requests in your reporting, being objective by presenting others with both sides of an issue, giving others the credit they are due, and most essentially, reporting truthfully are all examples of being ethical. In what? Journalism.


   Truly there is no major gap in the ethical and moral guidelines that journalists must follow and other people should follow. Those guidelines listed apply to everyone, really. However, when you are in the business of informing the world about the truth, it is profoundly important. A journalist's job is to be ethical, to be a truth pro-claimer. It is no easy or flippant task. Yet, it is deeply rewarding.


  I used the guidelines from this site to help me see the ways journalist are to be ethical: http://www.journalismdegree.com/ethics/ . In order to give credit where it is due, the author's name is only listed as Jason.