Situation Definition:
While listening to Julie Brown speak on her journey of writing about Jeffrey Epstein, two things I wondered were how did she feel about possibly being one of the reasons a person died, no matter how bad they were and how safe she felt while researching and publishing her work? Though it’s known Mr. Epstein was a very bad person, one would have to imagine that finding out a person died because of a situation you put them in would have to have some sort of effect on your mental or emotional state. Also, with the people Mr. Epstein associated with and the power and resources they have, you’d have to be at least somewhat nervous about what consequences digging into things they don’t want you in would have.
Analysis:
While speaking, Julie brown did for a moment speak about the death of Jeffrey Epstein. She said that she found out like the rest of us, she woke up, saw the news, was a little shocked, but in the end went on with her day. She is upset that he doesn’t get to face justice like he deserves and just like any other criminal, but she didn’t seem to have any remorse. I assume that she looked at the consequences of her publication and decided that the positives (justice for the victims, exposure of what some of the elite do) far outweighed the negatives (the possibility of Epstein’s death).
You also have to wonder if the exposure to dark topics such as what Epstein was doing as well as the thought of his possible death lead to Julie Brown being more desensitized and feeling more okay with publishing work that could cause a death. A study was conducted where college journalism students were split into 2 groups where half were made to think about death and the others something more positive, dental pain. After, the students were asked to do a survey on how they feel about ethics and the results “showed that although those in the death group were no more fearful, they were less relativistic and more strongly opposed to socially undesirable behavior by journalists, such as lying, publishing the names of rape victims, and reporting a public official’s sexual affair” (Cuillier, 2009, p. 1).
If these results are to be believed then it’s reasonable for one to think that with the subject matter Brown was working on that she’d be more ok with the possible negative consequences. However, from her speaking, this does not seem to be the case and she seemed to be very levelheaded with her reporting. I do not in anyway mean to discredit her, I just found the topic of this study to be interesting and relevant to her and her reporting.
The other ethical issue her talk made me think about was how safe she felt while researching and publishing the piece and if it’s ethical for someone to put themselves in that situation. Epstein was part of the ultra-wealthy and mingled with people that have more money than him and more power. They are the type of people that if they would feel her revealing something terrible about a person they associate with would hurt their reputation, they’ll do what it takes to protect themselves. She didn’t go too much into this during her talk, I believe all she had to say on the subject was she didn’t feel in any more danger than she has in the past.
Before being interviewed by Science (before Julie Brown’s story broke and on a different topioc), Mr, Epstein laid out to them that they “[may]not to use any quotes without first getting his permission. ‘I have lots of detractors,’ he said, ‘so certain things phrased the wrong way could make trouble for you and I’” (Mervis, 2019, p.5). So even Epstein understood that not only can reporting on him affect him, but also the person reporting it.
Conclusion:
What I leaned from this is that journalism can be a dangerous game for the reporter and whoever is being reported on. Though I think what happened to Epstein was justified, I still would feel bad about someone’s death essentially being on my hands. I think that this ethical issue of blood essentially being on a journalist’s hands needs to be talked about more, not just because someone is dying but also because of the effects it could have on the journalist’s mental health.
It’s also important that journalists keep themselves safe, because although their news organization and the authorities can do their best to protect them, they won’t always be able to. Because of this known risk, I think Julie Brown is very brave for going up against the rich and the terrible things they can get away with and knowing the consequences it could have on her.
References:
Cuillier, D. (2009). Mortality morality: Effect of death thoughts on journalism students’ attitudes toward relativism, idealism, and ethics. Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 24(1), 40-58. doi:10.1080/08900520802644394
Mervis, J. (2019). What kind of researcher did sex offender jeffrey epstein like to fund? he told science before he died. Science, doi:10.1126/science.aaz5673