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View Poll Results: What would you do with the information?
Is the person that's gonna die Al Capone or Mother Theresa?
I would more than likely keep quiet, but if the guy is some kind of Jeffrey Dahmer, well........
How much value do you place in this 'information' if it would change politics...in your opinion for the better?
I want to emphasize the 'damaging' information - is something that could change the political futures of the parties involved.
I have little doubt there are some politically motivated journalists that would like nothing better than to damage an opposing party...but how far would they go?
For example:
Lets look at the reporters involved in the Plame case...would they have printed the story knowing that an 'undercover' operative could die?
Would the reporter for newsweek have published a story about the koran getting flushed knowing that people could die?
Would you have published information about the White Water investigation if you knew someone would commit suicide?
Maybe i should have developed the 'person' into more of a character to this scenario...but I figure it would be easier to just say a human life would be affected by your actions. I could have quantified it to be more than one life related to the 'information'...but I elected to keep it simple.
It pretty much comes down to this old quote: 'needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few'.
I clicked "do not report," because I wouldn't report it in a manner that qould result in all of those things. There are always aspects of a story that you can leave out--details that will endanger lives--without compromising your story.
Aside from all of the political implications gains, there is a kernal of truth in the idea that the public has a right to know--when it has to do with the public and not private lives. But, too often it's used as an excuse to slander someone. We can let the public know plenty without endangering lives or ruining careers over petty personal problems.
__________________ America cannot have an empire abroad and a Republic at home.
Dj, you almost have to get into specifics for most people to be able to answer this. If you are saying that you know for certain and ahead of time that someone will die because of what you are about to report, I don't know how any sane individual would release the story anyway regardless of compensation.
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“So I became a newspaperman. I hated to do it but I couldn’t find honest employment.” —Mark Twain
You just have the knowledge that someone will absolutely die if the 'information' is released. That person can be a baseball player, covert spy, prisoner, teacher, bus driver, etc...
many things have been written and said that harmed people. If it's truthful and a greater good is served, i'll put up with it.
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Then should the Abu Ghraib scandel been kept under media wraps?
If it would have been up to me to break that story, it would never have seen the light of day. I don't consider what they were doing to be torture. The insurgents were beheading our troops, dragging our citizens behind cars, hanging them on a bridge and burning them. How could you not expect some negative reaction from our people?
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“So I became a newspaperman. I hated to do it but I couldn’t find honest employment.” —Mark Twain
Folks can argue that more people died because of the reporting of Abu Grahib scandal and inflamed a whole region against the U.S.
Was it worth it?
On a side note: I would have probably reported that one.
:hypocritedjaughe:
The best scenario would have been for the person that reported it to have gone to the Commanding Officer and said "Look, I have these, this is what's going on....fix it".
I don't care what anybody says, there is no way all of the Commanders at all echelons knew what was going on. Anyone who has ever served knows what I'm talking about.
Unless of course the reporter sympathized with the prisoners and wanted to fry the soldiers. Then the above scenario wouldn't be a possibility.
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Bob Melvin is an idiot. Period.
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