Nabiha Syed, chief executive of The Markup and a media lawyer, led an Ethics & Journalism workshop for students through a case study focused on privacy, news judgment, and the role of corporate ownership in overseeing editorial decisions.
The complex scenario centered on January coverage by Business Insider that produced evidence that Neri Oxman, a former MIT professor and wife of billionaire hedge fund founder Bill Ackman, had committed plagiarism in her academic work.
Under Syed’s guidance, the students in February analyzed the situation, considering various perspectives, through discussion and debate of the following questions:
- Privacy Invasion and Ethical Concerns:
- Did Business Insider unethically invade former MIT professor Neri Oxman’s privacy by writing about plagiarism accusations against her?
- Newsworthiness and Motivations:
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- How do you evaluate the newsworthiness of the BI story in light of similar plagiarism allegations that forced Claudine Gay’s resignation as Harvard president? Was the story aimed at retaliating against Oxman’s husband, Bill Ackman, for successfully campaigning for the removal of Harvard’s president? How should motivation influence news judgment?
- Parent Company’s Role and Investigation:
- Is it appropriate for a news organization’s parent company to conduct an investigation of work by the newsroom because of questions about an editor’s news judgment?
- Influence of Powerful Individuals:
- Should complaints by a powerful person, such as Ackman, influence a decision by a news organization’s owner on whether to get involved in a news matter?
- Editorial Best Practices:
- From an editor’s perspective, what’s best practice in managing such investigations or inquiries from the news organization’s business side or from its parent company or general counsel?
The case presented a unique opportunity for the students to work through important issues they may face as working journalists and sought to give them tools and context for approaching those ethical challenges in the future.