Secrets in media?

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What should be kept as a secret? What shouldn’t be? These are two questions I don’t think we’ll ever be able to answer. Certain things should be kept a secret; we have a right to privacy. But then again, when you are in the public eye for example, you kind of waive that “right to privacy” involuntarily. And even then, how far is too far? As a media professional these questions become harder, especially when it comes to ethics. At this point ethics goes out the window.

In undergrad I worked as an RA (resident assistant), I had to make sure I understood what the “Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act" of 1974 was. FERPA, as amended, sets forth requirements regarding the privacy of student records. The purpose of the act is to give students access to their official records at the college, to provide an opportunity to correct inaccurate or misleading statements and to ensure that records are not released to unauthorized persons without the consent of the student. As an RA I saw parents who were concerned but I also saw parents who were having a hard time letting go or as some called them “controlling”.  Most students come in as adults and should have the right to privacy. This act has also failed some students but has also done its job.

For example, in 2002 Mike McQueary, the then-graduate assistant told head coach Joe Paterno that he had witnessed defensive coordinator, Jerry Sandusky abusing a boy in a Penn State locker room shower. Paterno informed athletic director Tim Curley, who later met with McQueary and Gary Schultz, senior vice president for finance and business. This information should not have been kept a secret as long as it was. Some like district attorney Ray Gricar, who chose not to prosecute Sandusky in ’98 when these allegations surfaced, make you think that he wanted this kept private. Making this a wrongfully kept secret. McQueary was not the only one who had seen anything; Jim Calhoun, a temporary janitor told co-workers and a supervisor in 2000 that he witnessed Sandusky engaging in sexual activity with a boy in a campus locker-room shower. Later, several staff members said that Calhoun, a veteran of the Korean War, was “visibly shaken” by what he reported seeing.

As a media professional I believe in the right to privacy, but at the same time I believe people should know the truth. And quite frankly, some people need to be exposed.  McQueary was right in coming forward and standing firm. He had a lot to lose when he made that decision to honor his primary responsibility, which is to protect the students. He may have hurt them by opening up old wounds, but he saved one of those kids from doing something like that to anyone else. Kids who are abused tend to abuse.

Personally, I couldn’t use the media to share this type of information if I’m asked to do it just to hurt people and completely destroy families. If I am going to do it, it will be to bring awareness. As a media professional, I think it is a challenge to avoid getting entangled in secrets. You have to decide how much is too much, what should be revealed and think about whom it’s going to hurt. This is an inescapable ethical dilemma.

Communitarianism, an ethical perspective discussed in class, which is about how community interests trump individual interest in quest for social justice is shown in this case. This also brings up Bok’s ethical decision-making  question: Is there another professionally acceptable way to achieve the same goal that will not raise ethical issue?