Well, having posted one brief ethics note not typically worthy of a full post, here are some more that just popped up…

1. On season two of “Broadchurch,” a quirky Netflix British drama that ran three seasons, there is an exchange in which a criminal defense attorney (that is, a barrister) in an intense and controversial trial excoriates her assistant by saying, “If you were doing your job, we’d have a chance at getting our client off!”

That is unethical and a false characterization of the defense’s job. It is also, I fear, what most people think the defense is trying to do.

A defense attorney’s job in a criminal trial is to ensure that the prosecution proves the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in the assessment of the jury. It is not to get a guilty criminal “off.” It’s a subtle distinction but a crucial one. Every defendant deserves a fair trial, which means a competent, vigorous defense, so that if he or she is ultimately found guilty, due process has been served.

The defense attorney’s mission is to make the prosecution fulfill its mission. When the prosecution’s argument fails because the defense demonstrated that the case wasn’t clearly presented or strong enough, that is entirely the prosecution’s fault. If, despite a vigorous and zealous defense a defendant is convicted by a competent jury, the ethical defense attorney should feel satisfied. An attorney who is elated that she got a guilty defendant “off” is in the wrong profession. She did her job, but the prosecution didn’t, and the result, while the right one, is nothing to celebrate.

Continue reading →

The lab where I go to get my bloodwork, Sunrise Labs in Arlington, Virginia on Carlin Springs Road, has a spare, gray waiting room. There is only a single decoration: a framed color photograph of gravestones.

I kid you not, as Jack Paar used to say.

I have referenced the parable of “The Dishonest Waiter” here several times after first encountering it in the film, “Denial.” The point is that when a waiter gives you the wrong change it can be presumed to be a simple innocent mistake, but when all of the waiter’s “mistakes” go in one direction, to his own financial benefit, one can no longer give such a waiter the benefit of the doubt: he’s dishonest, and those weren’t mistakes. Ethics Alarms finds the Axis news media as a perfect equivalent of the Dishonest Waiter now: all of their “mistakes” go to the disadvantage of Donald Trump and his party. Those who insist, “Nah, there’s no mainstream media bias,” I fear, are as dishonest as the metaphorical waiter.

Our Dishonest Waiters has been a busy bee lately. A few examples among many more…

Continue reading →

Governor J.B. Pritzker attacked school choice and said its supporters "can F*CK ALL THE WAY OFF."

He went to private school.
He sent his kids to private school. pic.twitter.com/YKusZRFN9k

— Corey A. DeAngelis, school choice evangelist (@DeAngelisCorey) November 11, 2025

Imagine: this dishonest, repulsive* man really thinks he has a shot at the White House.

Meanwhile, Gov. Pritzker’s remarks neatly remind people to read Ethics Alarms:

1. Democrats want to make sure that parents have no choice but to submit their children’s vulnerable minds to radical, anti-American propaganda. As discussed here…

2. Here, on October 22, we discussed how prominent Democrats routinely demand that the “little people” eschew conduct that they happily engage in while appearing to see no irony or hypocrisy in their doing so. Of course, this is a hallmark of Communism and socialism, which the current leaders of the Democratic Party are currently promoting. As school choice advocate Corey de Anglelis correctly notes, Pritzker sent his children to private school.

3. “They want to punish teachers for telling the truth.” As debated here, “telling the truth” in our educational institutions means suffocating independent thought with Leftist cant, narratives and propaganda.

4. Here EA recently pondered what the Democratic Party calls “supporting” trans individuals. Of course, there are many posts, over many years, holding that our primary schools schools should not be promoting any sexual orientations or conduct whatsoever.

5. Finding himself devoid of valid arguments, Pritzker follows the current fad of his flailing, tantrum-addicted party, and continues the coarsening of public discourse by resorting to “fuck.”

Boy, Democrats have some terrible, unethical governors! Which do you think is the worst of the batch? J.D. Pritzker (Ill.)? Kathy Hochul (NY)? Tim Walz (Minn.)? Gavin Newsom (Cal.)? Gretchen Witmer (Mich.)?

Tough choice.

__________

* I am not using “repulsive” as an ad hominem insult, but simply making a factual observation. Since the arrival of TV, no credible Presidential candidate has ended up on a ballot who was morbidly obese (like Taft) or whose face could stop a clock (like Lincoln). Running in his party, Pritzker is also handicapped by being white, heterosexual, and male. The guy is deluded.