Are we telling people in public office that they are no longer able to trust members of the press or the people that they work with and for because their opinions are now no longer allowed to be kept private?

How does this affect the integrity of social media, if we don’t have an ethical standard by which to follow? Social Media should hold itself to the same ethical standards when dealing with off record information as the press is supposed too.

What are people supposed to do now? I think that if someone is speaking candidly and if they don’t want it to be on-record then it should be just that, private and not ever put in print or in this case sound bite. I think TMZ violated an ethical code when they allowed the sound bite of President Obama to go public, but the larger ethical issue is that Terry Moran of ABC should have never let it out in the first place. What is the world comming to when reporters are now allowed to talk about or let slip off-record information?

What direction is social media going, if it allows this information to be brodcast? I think that users of social media should have enough of their own personal integrity to know that sometimes what people say needs to be kept private and is not for public consumption.

What do you think about journalist taking off the record comments and making them public?

Share on Facebook