Mayhill Fowler Case

After reading the stories on Mayhill Fowler, I would say her ethics are certainly not up to par to consider herself a journalist. She has certainly managed to get some interesting scoops with both President Obama and President Clinton, but her tactics for obtaining these stories are unethical.

When she approached President Clinton about an article written about him, Clinton said some less than flattering things about the author. Clinton referred to him as "sleazy" "slimy". Although this is a great media story, Fowler had never identified herself to Clinton as a journalist. In an ethical sense, we all know it is important for media to identify themselves upfront.

With President Obama, Fowler managed to almost destroy his bid for the presidency. Although she identified herself as an Obama supporter, she printed some less-than flattering comments that the President made during a press conference. The problem was that Fowler blatantly ignored that the conference was closed press. Fowler never should have been at the conference in the first place.

With citizen journalism constantly growing and spreading, we have to be more aware of issues like these. Although this type of reporting allows more people access to information, we have to keep in mind that non-professional journalists do not have the same ethical training that professional journalists are given. Although professional journalists are often caught in scandals like this as well, citizen journalists are not nearly as aware of the rules or practices of the media.