Saturday, September 27, 2003

 

My local PBS television station is rebroadcasting the "Ethics in America" series of seminars filmed from 1986 through 1988.
This set of seminars examines ethics in America, just as the title says. The panel is composed of a lot of famous people, including newsmen like Morley Safer, and a Supreme Court justice, Justice Antonin Scalia. The moderator poses different scenarios and the panel deals with the ethics of handling the problem. The most recent one I watched involved a political figure and a possible scandal with an affair. The panel discussed the ramifications of privacy and the right to privacy and how it is perceived differently for someone who is a celebrity, in this case a presidential candidate. Think Gary Hart, who withdrew when it came out that pictures of a woman in a tiny bikini, not his wife, were taken on his boat. It was interesting to hear how the press would investigate the candidate and what they would and would not do to get the details of the story. Is the life of a person open to this kind of scrutiny because of the celebrity status? The point here is that if you get the chance, you should watch these programs and really listen to the things they discuss. It is hard to follow sometimes. You really have to pay close attention. I love programs like this one, which make me think, and think really hard, about something which catches my interest. I have had to make moral choices in my life as I am sure you have in yours and these programs have caused me to think so hard that sometimes it hurts as the gears grind in my mind...

Posted by: Rowlfe - at: 9/27/2003 09:43:00 PM

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