Utilitarianism: Is Fox News Gone Too Far?

. Television networks broadcast live on a small broadcast delay to give them the ability to censor or cut out any information that is not appropriate for the broadcast. In occasional circumstances, the material is not censored in time to prevent it from being displayed to the audience. This can be from technical difficulties including someone just forgetting to place the delay switch on. The network’s purpose is to keep unappropriated material these things off of the air, but for whatever reason they do not always catch it. This is usually a circumstance of human error. In one case Fox News was showing live footage of a car chase. The chase ended with the suspect, JoDon Romero, exiting the car and shooting himself in the head. His children, who saw the footage, were left with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. (Goldman, 2013) Fox News has apologized profusely for the error, and claims that the intention was never to let that air. Some people were appalled by this incident, but Deontology looks only at the intentions behind the incident. The network’s intentions were not unethical in this situation despite …show more content…
All the theories and perspectives have their own way of analyzing the situation to provide a unique point of view. Utilitarianism tries to find a solution that would be good for the greatest number of people involved. Deontology uses motives and intentions to determine whether or not something is ethical, and Emotivism looks at how something makes an individual feel to know if it is right or wrong. They all have something to offer in making ethical decisions. The media should use these ideas and perspectives to help make a guideline for how they should handle reporting the news. When it comes to reporting a story the facts can become hard to present in an ethical way. These theories can help make staying ethical in reporting