Moral Conundrum IV

[Elliot Kane]

You are a journalist working at a major newspaper. As yet your career has not really done well, and you are neither very successful nor very well paid. Worse, you are badly in debt with no easy way out. As such, you need the one huge story which will make your name, your career and your fortune.

And you just found it! An old diary you pick up at a car boot sale, clearly authentic and written by the Mother of one of the best and brightest young politicians in your nation. This person is a rising star and has proved time and again - not just by words but through actions - that they have the good of the nation at heart and both the ideas and the courage to make a real and positive difference.

The diary reveals that the politician's Mother ran a high class call girl service and that his Father was a thief and a forger. Both were so successful that they were never caught and the diary gloats over how well they played the part of the respectable middle class couple. Not only were they criminals, but they reveled in it!

If you take this to your editor, your career is made at a stroke - and that of the rising politician is utterly crushed. No way the electorate would accept the child of two criminals as their future leader! With the amount you could make off the story, your debts would be wiped out at a stroke, too.

Both parents are dead, now, so the only person to lose out would be the politician. It's you vrs them, basically.

What do you do?

[Dark Phoenix Rising]

I'd make a brief career change to write a fictionalised autobiography based on the real life diaries of a "middle class family", and when challenged as to it's authenticity trot out the diary and use innocent parts of it as proof that what I've written is actually based on fact. I'd also give a copy of the diary, and a proof of the book to the politian in question with the clear reasoning that a) he should know, and b) to ensure that he doesn't think that there is any identifying information in the book.

Maybe also talk to my editor about making it a serial in the newspaper I work for, rather than publishing it out right.

Through out the "biography" I'd also try to slant their backgrounds so that it appears like they were trying to keep the worst of their lives away from the eyes of their children.

[Cat]

I'd give the diary to the editor, this is my job!

Sure it may damage the politicians rep, but if he's THAT good then he could get out of it well enough, it would be clear that the diary concerns his deceased parents, rather than himself.

In publishing the diary, I'd get the money, and if the politician was good enough to save then he'd be good enough to get out of it himself.

[Lews]

I'd save it and use it later in life when the man was no longer such an important politician, or I would never use it.

If he is that good then he is definitely what the nation needs and putting one person (me) above the good of the nation is wrong.

[Hand-E-Food]

If I was a reporter, I'd probably write the story. If I'm going to be in a hyperthetical situation, I'm going to have to be the hyperthetical person. The newspaper is not about what is wrong and right. The newspaper is about the story that sells. Remember the final scene of Watchmen?

[The Sonar Chicken]

Hmmm... I wouldn't do anything with it but instead, return it. No one gets to choose what parents they were born to and I don't think ruining his career would be a good thing to do.

Besides, it's written by the Mother you say? Where's the proof? It could just be a smear attempt which was later abandoned. These days, it's easy to forge someone's writing and so on.

Of course, I'd return it but also, make sure that I earn enough of his gratitude so that I'm showered with money and gifts. ;D What's wrong with taking advantage of my position to claw my way up a little?

Now, if I was feeling evil: I'd assess my position before moving in for the attack. As in: how can I defend myself if he counter-attacks?

I'd of course google up his parents' details and establish a large amount of stories, pictures, eyewitness accounts, etc. And if there just isn't enough visual evidence, there's always Photoshop right? ;D

Oops... forgot to read the main topic clearly. Answer re-edited.

[Ubereil]

Well, thing nr one would be double checking the facts. Because, like Luci said, it might as well be a forgery.

That's part one! With luck, you'll get a part two later on.

Übereil

[LaFille]

I would take pictures of it and every page, make copies and put the original in a safe secret place; if I had someone I could trust, I would make him/her aware of the story and my intentions. I would do some in-depth research about his childhood, teenage and life, if he might have known about his parents' hidden life, if he was close to them, if he had tendencies to delinquency, etc. I would then try to use the journal as a pressure mean to have a meeting with the politician in question to discuss (and at said meeting, probably set-up some way to secure myself, like having the trusted person observe from afar or a hidden microphone). The outcome of it would be what I would base my decision on.

I believe that it's possible that one who was raised among criminals would not necessarily become one him/herself, and I also believe that one can have done bad things and change after, so I would want to know who/how this guy is (and what kind of organization/people he has around him too). If it turned out that he didn't know about his parents's hidden life and was a genuinely good person, I would be on the lookout for an opportunity to make myself a place in his surroundings, have a deal with him for some exclusive coverage if publishing his parents' story right away didn't feel like a good thing to do. Depending on his background, publishing it but with his point of view included would also be an option. And if it turned out that there was fishy/disgusting stuff uncovered and that it wasn't all that shiny as it looked, I would then consider publishing some of the stuff if not all.

Either way with the journal in hand (if it indeed can be recognized as authentic) there's a good shot to make for me (without necessarily crushing the guy's career). I don't know how it is elsewhere, but here it can be accepted sometimes by the public that a politician would have [had] someone in their family that was a criminal (or worked in the sex industry), or even had ever committed some crime him/herself depending on the situation... It can even make one look more human in a positive way. Each case is unique, though.

[Galadriel]

I go with Luce's opinion, children don't have to pay for what the parents did. And if the politician is really good, he certainly not deserves that his past would ruin him.
In Belgium that problem would be easier, we don't have good and honest politicians ;D

[Elliot Kane]

I'll give time for any last answers and pick the best one tomorrow

[Flix]

Well, I wouldn't try to rationalize that the policitician's career would probably be ok if I published the story about his parents, that if he was really that great of a politician the public would forgive him and his career would survive, etc. I would have to accept that it's my career vs. his. I would choose mine, publish the story, pay off my debts and launch my career.

Publishing the story wouldn't violate my ethics because the story is true, newsworthy, and not maliciously intended. I might try mitigating factors like absolving the politician of any criminal knowledge or behavior in my piece but I would know full well that his political opponents would use the story to smear his name and destroy his career.

I might feel guilt, but it would not be unbearable. It would be guilt for his personal career, not guilt for the future of the nation. This one story is not going to sabotage a positive outcome for the country.

[Elliot Kane]

Jun 28, 2009 1:03:13 GMT Lews said:

I'd save it and use it later in life when the man was no longer such an important politician, or I would never use it.

If he is that good then he is definitely what the nation needs and putting one person (me) above the good of the nation is wrong.

There are a lot of clever answers, but the best one, to me, is this one by Lews. The nation matters more than any newspaper, let alone any individual.

Take it away, Lews!

[janggut]

i know this discussion has ended. however i have a slight conundrum to present;

a man is attempting suicide by jumping off a building. as a negotiator, u see that he is serious about it though u have yet to know the story behind it, apart from his story that is. the TV station crew, news reporters are down there, taking pictures & stuff. some of them are on top of the opposite building.

u have a radio plugged into your ears & a colleague called in, telling u that the suicidal guy's fly is open to the media. some of the bystanders who know of it (via live telecast of the suicide attempt) are shouting to get the suicidal man's attention. from the looks of it, they want to tell him about his fly.

as a negotiator, what would u do?

[LaFille]

By fly, do you mean his pants' zipper?

[Elliot Kane]

Jang - tell him to get the effing Press out of the way, then go back to talking the guy down. Telling him he's exposing himself to the world may not exactly put him in a great state of mind to come down and is more likely to be a last straw situation if he's really all that desperate.

A sort of 'I can't even die with dignity!' type last straw.

[Glance A'Lot]

Well - the guy has obviously seen Rowan Atkinson's sketch "In Hell", where it is strongly recommended that you go to the toilet before dying (especially of suicide) as in hell, all is about condemnation 'without relief'...

{Couldn't help it ;D}

[killerzzz]

"I wish you would step back from that ledge my friend.
You could, cut ties with all the lies that you've been living in,
aa-and, if you do not want to see me again
I would under-staa-aaa-aaa-aaa-aa-aaaand.
I would under-staa-aaa-aaa-aaa-aa-aaaand."

Killerzzz

[Flix]

This is why guitar lessons are very important. You never now when you'll need to sing someone down off a ledge.

[janggut]

@ Fille -> yep!

@ EK -> that sounds reasonable.

@ Glance -> i've seen that sketch, yes, but how i came up with the situation doesn't originate from there. good one though! ;D