Situation Definition
The conference I went to go see was Julie Brown, a seasoned and decorated journalist for the Miami Herald. She is the woman who worked diligently to bring to light the sex trafficking ring that Jeffrey Epstein ran and had accomplices help with. It is because of her story that the police opened the case back up and got him thrown in jail. Before this case though, Brown wrote about a medley of topics, all having one common theme, bringing light to the injustices in the world. Through her job working at the Philadelphia Daily News, she discovered she liked covering people suffering from poverty, people who have suffered racial injustices, and basically people who suffered from different vulnerabilities, and tried her best to right the wrongs in their lives the best she could.
She found that it was her duty to use her journalistic prowess and resources to expose those in power who are doing wrong. At the Miami Herald, she found she enjoyed covering the same characters she did in Philadelphia, but this time they were people in South Florida, and stumbled upon researching the Miami Prison. She found a disturbing story about guards who locked a mentally ill inmate in the shower, turned the heat all the way up, and pealed off his skin and actually killed him. The prison covered his death up, and when she found out, she knew it was her duty to dig deeper and expose the corruption that had been happening for years in the prison. Her hard work resulted in personnel changes in the prison, such as fired guards, and better care for the inmates overall. Afterwards, she started looking into women’s prisons in Florida, where inmates spoke about being forced into sex trafficking. When she searched sex trafficking in Florida, she found many stories of the super wealthy Jeffrey Epstein, including 143 Jane Doe records of Epstein’s victims. When looking deeper into the case and interviewing the few victims she could, she found that Epstein preyed upon young, impoverished girls who were basically un-supervised. He would promise them resources and connections if they either did sexual acts with them or brought other girls for him to molest (almost like a Ponzi scheme). This sex trafficking ring went on for years, and actually spanned other countries. Epstein was so rich and powerful that he was able to manipulate people into not talking about his crimes, including the media, celebrities such as Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, and even the justice system. By looking into this, Brown was able to expose his disgusting and manipulative ways, forcing the police to look into his case again. Two ethical messages that were brought up during her riveting talk was naming the victims/bringing them to light in the media, and how Epstein used his wealth and connections to keep this ring going on without being arrested for it.
Applicability to Journalism Ethics (Analysis)
As stated above, when Julie Brown looked into the Jeffrey Epstein case, she found a slew of documents, victim reports, and other articles of information about his ring and his co-conspirators. With the Jane Doe records, Brown found that many of them had fallen into drug addictions, sex work, or ended up in prison. Since Epstein continued his nefarious ways for so long, many of the victims were in their 30s by the time Brown started her case, because he victimized girls as young as 13. It was because of this that Brown said she felt successful in finding so much information, because the victims and people involved were older and more comfortable speaking up, since so much time had passed since Epstein was first charged with these crimes and got off. Brown only got to speak to four girls on the record, and four of them off the record. The first victim she spoke to was Emily, and she spoke about how traumatizing the whole ordeal was. After being molested for years by him and getting a lawyer when his first case was going on, Emily and the other victims felt such shame because the original charges were soliciting a prostitute (of a minor), not sex trafficking. They also were unaware that he was cut a plea bargain and were not involved in the decision of their lawyers to cut Epstein a lesser charge. When Brown heard this, she was understandably horrified, and made sure to put specifics in her article about Epstein. This brings up the first ethical issue, which is about naming the victims of sex crimes. In an article by Amber Orand and Sara Stone of the Society of Professional Journalists, the ethical code of journalists to “seek the truth and report it” balanced against bringing harm to the victims is discussed. The article states; “The first guideline in the code of ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists is “seek the truth and report it.” But the second guideline is “minimize harm.” Items under that dictum include “avoid pandering to lurid curiosity” and “be cautious about identifying juvenile suspects or victims of sex crimes.” (Orand & Stone, 2018). Obviously, it is a difficult line to navigate, whether or not to reveal the details of a person’s sexual assault story, especially when the victim is a minor. Later in the article, the authors explained how hard this issue can be to figure out;
Every case is different, and a journalist could certainly choose either course while remaining true to the SPJ code of ethics. In some cases, the best course of action might be to name the child, but refrain from publishing graphic details about the abuse the child endured. Perhaps in other cases, there is no pressing public interest for the child’s identity to be released, and his or her privacy is the utmost consideration. (Orand & Stone, 2018)
Brown decided to name this victim, with her permission of course, balancing the need of privacy of the victim and the public’s need to understand the lengths of Epstein’s depravity. She talked about how she thought over the ethical considerations of the case and decided that this was the best course of action for all parties involved. Brown did something all journalists need to do, which is to guide their decisions by ethical motives to come up with the best solutions for the victim and the audience.
The second ethical message that was brought up in her talk was how Epstein used his money and influence to manipulate the people involved, as well as higher ups such as prosecutors and the media. When he was first charged, the lead prosecutors actively refused to see that Epstein was a pedophile, and they immediately discussed a plea/getting off for his crimes after they first received the case. Brown also discussed how Trump and Clinton were friends with Epstein for years, and took plane rides with Epstein and his victims, so it would be logical to assume that they knew about the sex trafficking but obviously never said anything about it. When an editor of Vanity Fair wanted to write about the case, he or she was actually sent death threats, and scared off from writing about Epstein’s sex trafficking ring. In an article written by Caroline Hallemann for Town & Country Magazine, she talks about the facts of the case, and the connections Epstein had. In the article, she explains; “Epstein was known to associate with politicians on both sides of the aisle (Bill Clinton and Donald Trump to name just two), numerous celebrities, and other people in the public eye… At one point, Epstein also notably had ties to Queen Elizabeth’s son Prince Andrew. The extent of their relationship is somewhat unclear, but they were spotted walking together in Central Park in late 2010. At that point, he was already a convicted sex offender” (Hallemann, 2019). As illustrated in this quote, his connections spread far and wide, even to other countries, so Brown wasn’t shocked to see that no one had spoken out against him until he was tried and went to prison. Using your influence in a manipulative way is obviously an ethical issue, because Epstein basically forced people to keep quiet about his nefarious crimes. To build the story, Brown had to obtain all of the documents she could get in Miami, and sue the court in New York to get documents unsealed about his sex ring “process” and his co-conspirators, since they had been sealed years prior, possibly due to pressure from Epstein, which is also ethically unsound. These ethical messages discussed in the case were important messages that all future journalists need to keep in mind when writing sensitive pieces such as this one, and Brown described and discussed the challenges of her writing this series eloquently.
Conclusions
In conclusion, I found the talk by Julie Brown to be informative, engaging, and riveting. The way she spoke about battling against the injustices in the world to find justice for impoverished people truly inspired me. A main theme in her talk was to use the resources and power you have to fight against the corruption in the world, because the victims of said corruption often don’t have the voice to defend themselves. We all need to make it a mission to try and expose the world to dangerous, powerful, and predatory people such as Jeffrey Epstein, so victims don’t have to live in shame and deal with the trauma for the rest of their lives. Her journalistic prowess was also on full display, as she discussed in detail the time and effort it took to write her harrowing stories, and the passion she feels while doing it. She said being a journalist is the best job in the world, because it is her duty to bring to light issues that have been kept in the dark, and it truly inspired me to become a better write and more of an activist, and showed me that truth and justice is always something worth fighting for.
References
Hallemann, C. (2019, October 30). What We Know So Far About Jeffrey Epstein’s Sex Trafficking Case. Retrieved from https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/money-and-power/a28352055/jeffrey-epstein-criminal-case-facts/.
Orand, A., & Stone, S. (2018). Ethics Case Studies – Society of Professional Journalists. Retrieved from https://www.spj.org/ecs11.asp.