Blog 4 – Shaun Luzzi

I can honestly say I have learned a lot in Comm 409. I didn’t exactly know what to expect when I enrolled in this class. When I began, I only thought the class would go over rules such as: “Don’t cheat and don’t lie.” I never would have thought this class would go as deep and dive into such different topics while remaining relevant to the course. The most impact lessons that I learned were from Steve Glass. His case taught me the true danger of lying as a journalist. At a superficial level, a lesson to be learned from him is not to lie. However, he went above and beyond to lie and continue to lie to try to get himself out of it. This brings me to the second lesson learned from him. If you make a mistake and try to cover it up, it will catch up to you. The longer you wait, and the more you do to cover it up, this will increase the repercussions when revealed. One of the most important case studies was the one my group covered. This was the “Memogate” case with Dan Rather. This case taught me not only to not lie, but do not forge work of anybody, let alone the president of the United States. His reactions to the scandal coming out were a lesson to be learned by anyone. It is a lesson of what not to do when you are caught. He waited weeks to admit that nothing was fact checked and also waited to apologize to the stakeholders of CBS. As a whole I truly enjoyed this class. If I am going to be honest, on paper the class does not sound fun or enjoyable because it is ethics. However, Dr. Z does a great job to make the class relevant to everyday life and make the course enjoyable. Ethics is not just a journalist’s duty to learn, it is something that should be taken into consideration when making any choice or decision in your personal, professional, or romantic life.