Journalism ethics

[dseelig]

A prominent local just died where i live. One of the reporters from my paper, called his buisness and asked them to put the flowers sent for him outside for a photo. I objected shot it and asked the editor not to put my name on it. What do you guys think.

[michaelging]

That is setting up a photo , which should never be done as a news photo. If you do a photo like that, it should be titled as a Photo illustration.

[BillP]

I don't understand the question.

I don't understand the issue.

Or the reason for it being in this sub-forum.

Regards,

Bill

[dseelig]

I was asked to shoot a set up photo as if it was real. It was flowers put outside just for the photo for someone who died.

[Paul T.]

Choose your battles.

Is this disrespectful or a gross misrepresentation? I would save my outrage for that.

[bmattock]

I was asked to shoot a set up photo as if it was real. It was flowers put outside just for the photo for someone who died.

First, what is the question doing in this forum?

(Rangefinderforum.com > Coffee With Mentors > Bill Pierce - Leica M photog and author >)

Second, I still don't see the issue.

This is not as though you were asked to hire people to act as bombing victims in a war zone (Reuters), you took a photograph of flowers outside a door of a noted person who had died. You didn't put them outside, and neither did your paper. The people who lived there did, at your paper's request. A tad tacky to make such a request, perhaps, but I don't see it as an ethical issue.

[Roger Hicks]

Aren't there two separate things under discussion here?

First, things you feel are morally repulsive, and won't do at any price,

and

Second, things you think are tacky or would diminish your reputation, but will do for the money because you can do them better than anyone else; because if you don't do them. someone else will; and because the money is welcome...

The borderline between 'tacky' and 'morally repulsive' is, I freely admit (after more than a quarter century in journalism) ill-defined and can be influenced by the size of the cheque (check for American readers); but for me it's a fairly narrow band, and I'll write rubbish (under a pseudonym) if I don't actually find the subject matter against my principles. Thus I wrote 'Comet Catastrophe' (about Halley's Comet) as Roger Sutherland for a few thousand, but I'd never try to to make a serious defence of China's behaviour in Tibet.

Cheers,

Roger

[BillBingham2]

While I am not sure which, I would bet there are some journalistic shots that were set up over the years. If you were say putting a gun in a childs hands and asking him to point it at something in protest, yes you've crossed the line. Rearranging flowers IMHO is NBD.

B2 (;->

[dseelig]

Moved outside they were indoors. they were moved outside by a reporters request.

[BillP]

Did the owners object? Did they comply under duress? Were they outraged, indignant or emotionally scarred by the request? It may have been a tad tactless, but there are far worse things to do.

If this is a moral maze to you, perhaps, with all due respect, you are in the wrong profession.

Regards,

Bill

[M. Valdemar]

Weegee always put the "murder weapon" in his photos of gangster corpses, and he liked to put their hat in the photo. He felt the hat was dramatic.

He often dragged the corpse into a more gruesome position.

Civil War shots were very often staged very convincingly.

Once the image exists, it's "real".