Observe this video, please, in which who Philadelphia news anchors interview, and then mock, Olympic swimmer turned reality TV star Ryan Lochte:
Inexcusable. Inexcusable!
These two clowns should be fired, and run out of the industry.
Sheinelle Jones and Mike Jerrick are allegedly journalists. Lochte, dimwit that he is (and who didn’t already know that?), was their guest. Ridiculing him like a couple of “cool” junior high kids humiliating the boy who stutters is so far below minimal professional standards for broadcast journalism that it would take light years to reach it.
Why were they interviewing a reality star anyway? That is their fault, not Lochte’s. His intellectual deficiencies are well known; that’s why he has a show. If you star in such barrel-bottom fare, you are either a pathetic object of derision (Anna Nicole Smith, Scott Baio), desperate (Tatum O’Neil and her father), a freak ( Honey Boo-Boo) or a monster (the Kardashians, dance moms, Roseanne)—what were the anchors expecting, trenchant witticisms? Ambrose Bierce?
Their job is to treat all interview subjects with equal respect and fairness, and dissolving into laughter the second an inarticulate, preening boob is off the air does not meet this easy standard. Lochte’s comments were no less idiotic, just different in style and content, than what regularly comes out of Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Michael Steele, Michele Bachmann, Sean Penn, Alec Baldwin, Rep. Maxine Waters, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, to name just a miniscule percentage of the celebrity and public figure dolts who regularly afflict the airwaves, but these two counterfeit journalists would never dare treat any of them with similar derision….not because they have professional standards, but because they are cowards. They only pick on those who they know won’t fight back.
Jones and Jerrick were cowardly, cruel, rude, offensive, disrespectful and wildly unprofessional. They were also bullies. There are no excuses, no rationalizations. Professional journalists must not be permitted to act like this…indeed, nobody should think it is ever appropriate to treat anyone, anywhere, the way they treated Lochte. They should apologize, on the air, and then start their new careers in the mail room.
Ethics Alarms 
Sounds too painful to watch Jack. But what have you got against mail rooms?
At first I didnt think I had the stomach to watch it; bullies will always have a special place in the pantheon of things-that-turn-my-stomach. So I researched Ryan instead and after learning how proto typical frat he is I felt better about watching people laugh at him. If your a proto-frat-douche you deserve to be laughed at. Having said that… it was still pretty bad; not cool Fox, not cool.
What, the network didn’t have the good sense to go to a commercial instead of showing us those two laughing and mocking their interviewee like idiots? Not to excuse that behavior, but presumably there’s a floor director there, who’s as responsible for the network’s “brand” as anyone else with authority, and who can instruct the production crew to cut away, go to a commercial, whatever it takes to prevent damage to the brand. Either that director was asleep at the proverbial switch or he thought this kind of behavior would generate ratings. If the former, then he needs to be canned too, for not doing his job. If the latter, he still needs to go for staging a cheap stunt that might boost ratings in the short run, but just makes the network look bad in the long run.
I agree with you on this one. I watched this on YouTube and the first thing I thought was why are they interviewing him in the first place? It wasn’t funny at all. Locthe isn’t exactly the sharpest tool in the shed. But they certainly didn’t have to mock the man with their idiotic questions.
It seems a bit hypocritical to say “nobody should think it is ever appropriate to treat anyone, anywhere, the way they treated Lochte” so shortly after you refer to other celebrities as pathetic, depserate, freaks, and monsters.
Do you comprehend any relevant distinctions at all? Apparently not.
1) My descriptions are accurate. 2.) Lochte is in the category of “pathetic”, since you are interested. 3) I’m not a broadcast anchor nor a professional journalist, and have never pretended to be, 4) As an ethicist and blogger I am not required to be neutral, and have no ethical obligation to be so. 5) I did not invite any of said pathetic, desperate freaks and monsters to be my guests, then mock them for their appearances 6) I am not appearing on TV, and unable to do my job because of poor self control and an absence of manners 7) I do not represent a city, a news station, a network, or a national corporation.
In summary, since there is no nexus whatsoever between my role, obligations and conduct and what the two broadcast journalists did, no, there is not even a bit of hypocrisy. Learn some basic concepts before you start throwing terms with actual meanings around irresponsibly. If you have a coherent defense for the two unprofessional jerks, please offer it; manufacturing bogus attacks on the messenger is pointless and marks you as unworthy of this forum.
I don’t know on this one. I have a particularly hard time finding the right ethical angle when “reality television” is involved. To what extent is this performance art and Lochthe is in on the joke? He wants people to laugh at his antics and watch the show, right? The Jersey Shore crew set themselves up as objects of envy and mockery and I think Locthe is trying to do the same thing. So, is mockery just good for business and we are wasting time on someone playing the buffoon in a calculated manner?
I agree the issue is muddled in the context of reality TV. Who knows, he may have been in on it. But the “journalists” still come across as snickering, bullying adolescents and it is very-off putting to me. I would be disgusted to see actual adolescents behaving this way.
In my experience, all Fox reporters are no better than schoolyard bullies.
I’ve appeared on various national level Fox shows. On each occasion, I was spoken down to & Neil Cavuto went to far as to call me a communist/terrorist (neither of which is true).
That’s an unwarranted generalization, don’t you think, Kristen? You really think Fox tries to hire bullies or trains them as such, locally and nationally? I’ve only been on Fox national twice, but both times they were very professional and nice to me.
Apparently, the local station does not view this as a mistake at all. Their website is promoting this video; they are quite proud! Viewers are writing in praises and compliments to the anchors. Ugh.
Not “Ugh.”
“AAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!”
I think I’ve reached the “it’s not my culture” point.
They must have added too much Bailey’s to their morning coffee.
I’ve been noticing Sheinelle Jones (at the weekend anchor desk on Today Show) mugging non-verbals putting down her female colleagues (she doesn’t seem to react to her male colleagues this way). So I googled her name with the word “unprofessional”, and found this video you’re talking about here (it’s on YouTube). It’s mind-boggling to me that Today hired her, with this display of utter lack-of-class out on internet. Did Today do ANY research at all, before hiring her?
She was an attractive minority newsreader, and Today has few professional standards. I’ll have to watch her now to see what you refer to. And thanks: the video I had on the post was dead; I was able to find another.
I honestly don’t believe someone spent the time and energy to write and publish this. Sorry but really is the world is not made up of perfect, politically correct, thoughtful people so get out ya feelings and invest ur time in something u can actually change! JS!!
This has nothing to do with being perfect, nor does it have anything to do with political correctness. It has to do with standards values, fairness and professionalism, all concepts you appear to not comprehend at all. I’m hoping you’re 11, but if you are over 18, you are so desperately far behind where you should be in basic working knowledge of right and wrong, societal duties, civility, caring, civic competence and about a thousand other basics of competent and productive adulthood that I don’t know how you’re going to catch up. You could try reading some of the resources here, the essays, the comments, and actually educate yourself before you proclaim your ignorance in print, but I don’t hold much hope, because what I just read is both moronic and pretty much proof of an infantile mind. Well, good luck. But if your next comment isn’t a lot more intelligent than that that one, it’s not getting published. Do check out the Rationalizations list, though. It appears to cover the full extent of what you call “thought.”