Around the World

Ethics Hero Emeritus: Miep Gies, 1909-2010

/ Jack Marshall / Leave a comment

Miep Gies, the last surviving participant in the inspiring story of Anne Frank, died last week, a month short of her 101st birthday.

One of the most important objectives of thinking about ethics, and challenging ourselves to find the most ethical courses in the dilemmas and conflicts we read and hear about every day, is to be ready if and when a time comes when lives depend on our ability to determine the right thing to do, and to have the courage do it. I have no idea how much or how often Miep Gies thought about ethics. But when her time came, she was ready. Continue reading →

Checkbook Journalism at NBC

/ Jack Marshall / 4 Comments

The Society of Professional Journalists has properly condemned NBC for the journalistic ethics sin of “checkbook journalism”—paying subjects for exclusive news interviews. Following the happy conclusion of the protracted child custody dispute between American father David Goldman and his son’s Brazilian step-father, NBC flew the re-united father and son back to the U.S. on a charter flight, then featured them in a Today Show interview. Continue reading →

The 2009 Ethics Alarms Awards, Part 1: The Worst

/ Jack Marshall / 14 Comments

Welcome to the first annual Ethics Alarms Awards, recognizing the best and worst of ethics in 2009! These are the Worst; the Best is yet to come. Continue reading →

Punishing Pregnant Soldiers

/ Jack Marshall / 7 Comments

The outrage expressed by women’s groups over the Army’s announced intention to discipline and even court-martial female soldiers who become pregnant in war zones was as predictable as a sunrise. It also carries political firepower, and public appeal.

The complaints are, however, ethically nonsensical. Continue reading →

Why the SEALS Must Stand Trial

/ Jack Marshall / 5 Comments

It is one of those stories where Americans have to get stop thinking with their guts and use their brains instead. Guts can be useful, but not this time.

Three Navy SEALs who captured a highly sought terrorist in Iraq are facing court martials because of allegations that they abused him—speaking of guts, they supposedly punched him in his. It is unfortunate that the SEALS are being prosecuted rather than decorated, and it makes the Navy look unappreciative of their own men. The terrorist, Ahmed Hashim Abed, is believed to be behind the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah in 2004. Yes, capturing him was a good thing. Continue reading →

Ethics Dunce: Tag Heuer

/ Jack Marshall / 1 Comment

Swiss watch company Tag Heuer announced today that it would drop Tiger Woods from its advertising.  The CEO of the company told  Swiss paper Le Matin, “We recognize Tiger Woods as a great sportsman but we have to take account of the sensitivity of some consumers in relation to recent events.”

Translation: We, of course, would never presume to question the character and integrity of a husband and father who engages in serial adulterous affairs with any cocktail waitress, lingerie model, porn star, reality star or other owner of two x chromosomes as long as she had the physical dimensions of Jessica Rabbit, but such conduct apparently displeases some of our customers, heaven knows why, and though we’d use Martin Bormann as a spokesperson if he sold enough watches, our guess is that Tiger won’t. So he’s out.

This is called “doing the right thing for the wrong reasons.”

But these are the Swiss, after all. They wouldn’t even take a stand against Hitler.

Self-Castration Ethics

/ Jack Marshall / 4 Comments

Ouch.

A Colombian man whose wife refused to have sexual relations with him castrated himself to remove any temptation to become the next Tiger Woods.

This is in some ways admirable, don’t you think? Continue reading →

An Ethical Compromise on Climate Change Policy?

/ Jack Marshall / 5 Comments

A Canadian economist, Dr. Ross McKittrick, has written a paper suggesting that  carbon emission penalties be set to rise or fall according to climate indicators. He wants to tie carbon penalties to the temperature of the lowest layer of the atmosphere —the troposphere, which extends from the surface of the earth to a height of about 10 miles. His paper advocates using temperature readings near the equator, because that is where the global warming models forecast the greatest increases. Continue reading →

Save Lindsay Lohan

/ Jack Marshall / 3 Comments

It’s interesting, isn’t it? People who would never think of ridiculing the sick or mentally ill, who would never dream of condemning emotionally crippled individuals broken by dysfunctional families, will gleefully heap public abuse on a celebrity with the same problems. Why is this? A human being in trouble is a human being in trouble. It seems, however, that with the exception of little girls who fall down wells, the more people who know you are in crisis, the less sympathy you are likely to get.

Take, for example, the sad case of actress Lindsay Lohan, a talented young woman cursed with two narcissistic and exploitive parents. Continue reading →

The Ethics of Ignorance and Apathy: Gore’s Million Degree Gaffe

/ Jack Marshall / 2 Comments

I didn’t watch Al Gore when he appeared on the Tonight Show a couple weeks ago. What he said then while hobnobbing with Conan should be old news, but in fact it was no news at all, because virtually no news media gave it more than a passing mention. Then, by purest accident, I heard a talk-radio host ranting about a shocking statement Gore had made on the show, and I checked to see if he could possibly be quoting the former Vice-President correctly.

He was. Here is the exchange: Continue reading →