How Many People Died Because of Batkid?
Batkid. Remember Batkid? A sick child, running around San Francisco, living a wonderful dream? Terrible use of resources, that kid was.
This is a captivating story, but do we really want to adopt as a standard of morality the idea that bystanders are obligated to jump in when they see someone being held up at gunpoint? Cause uh, I'm happy to call the cops for you, but...
Does the N.Y. Times’ Star Tech Reporter Understand Its Ethics Policy?
So here’s a question for the Paper of Record: Can a reporter ethically accept a gift from a company he covers if the reporter gives it to a family member, or a friend? We ask because superstar tech reporter Nick Bilton admitted to doing so—or at least attempting to—on last week’s episode of Leo Laporte’s "This Week in…
Child Killer's Request to Donate Organs Grants Him Stay of Execution
In 1993, Ronald Phillips raped and killed his girlfriend's 3-year-old daughter. On Thursday, he was scheduled to be executed, until Ohio governor John Kasich delayed his execution so he could come to a decision whether Philips' request for his organs to be donated should be fulfilled.
How Low an IQ Is Too Low to Be Executed?
The Supreme Court is set to review the case of Freddie Lee Hall, a mentally retarded man in Florida who was sentenced to death for participating in a rape, robbery, and two murders. They tackle two main questions: How high an IQ should be necessary for capital punishment? And is IQ measurement even precise enough to…
Do Not Give a Dollar to the Opera
Alarming news for music lovers: the New York City Opera, which has performed in the city for generations, will have to cancel the rest of its season and all of next year's season if it doesn't raise $20 million soon. A tragedy, for the arts. Still, no one should give the opera $20 million.
Despite what Chuck Klosterman is apparently claiming in this interview, almost none of us have ever smoked crack cocaine with him.
New York Times Blogger Demanded Travel and Expenses from Companies
A blogger for The New York Times has been requesting thousands of dollars in "expenses" and travel airfare from a public relations firm trying to get its clients covered in the Times, according to emails obtained by Gawker.
Is Spying Okay?
In the aftermath of the revelations about the NSA's secret spying programs, there is plenty of anger to go around. American citizens are pissed that they were spied on. European governments are pissed that they were spied on. Nobody, it seems, is happy with being spied on. So why is spying such an accepted institution?
Is the New York Post Edited by a Bigoted Drunk Who Fucks Pigs?
This morning, the New York Post published on its front page a photo of two spectators near the Boston Marathon finish line, one wearing a backpack and one with a duffel bag slung at his side, under the headline "BAG MEN."
The overworked and poisoned bee slaves that pollinate the almonds for your vegan milk are still dying en masse.
It's Time to Give Journalistic Criminals Like Jonah Lehrer the Journalistic Death Penalty
Jonah Lehrer, promising young golden boy of Gladwellian think-journalism, has had a bad eight months. Caught plagiarizing himself last June; soon after, caught fabricating quotes, and forced to resign from his plum gig at the New Yorker, and rapidly cast out of the chosen fold to wander the wilderness as a sort of…
Fifteen Ways of Looking at the Media Blackout of Richard Engel's Abduction, Vol. II: Against
The overwhelming majority of messages I got in response to Peter Bouckaert's call for an email campaign were critical of Gawker's decision not to honor the Richard Engel media blackout. But not all of them. Somalia Report publisher Robert Young Pelton, a longtime freelance reporter, wrote me to alert me to…
Fifteen Ways of Looking at the Media Blackout of Richard Engel's Abduction, Vol. I: For
When we published reports on Monday that Richard Engel and his crew had gone missing in Syria, it was over the objections of Engel's employer NBC News, which had been trying to enforce a media blackout on Engel's situation. That was an unpopular decision in some quarters, and it sparked a discussion on the Vulture Club
Suicide Is Not the Media's Fault
Last Friday, the Tampa Bay Times published a nuanced and heartbreaking feature story about Gretchen Molannen, a 39 year-old Florida woman with a condition known as "persistent genital arousal." Molannen described how her condition—likened to constant, unceasing physical arousal without any of the accompanying mental…
Car Chases, Live TV, and Ethics
So, Fox News has, excruciatingly, just broadcast live video of a man committing suicide after a car chase. Fox anchor Shep Smith said afterwards that the network was on a five-second delay, but that the video got through regardless. A network technician being too slow on the button is not the real issue here. The real…
Proudly Unethical Website Hires Unemployed College Professors to Write Essays for Students
A Montreal-based website is offering college students the chance to have their essay penned by a real-life unemployed college professor in exchange for cash.
