Questions We Can Help to Answer
Instructions:
The decision by CBS 60 Minutes to broadcast a tape of a doctor assisted suicide still raises some questions regarding journalistic ethics and standards. In November of 1998, "60 Minutes" aired a story that showed Dr. Jack Kevorkian administering a lethal injection to Thomas Youk, a 52-year-old Michigan man suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS). Kevorkian allowed the airing of a videotape he had made on September 17, 1998, which depicted the voluntary euthanasia of Youk, an adult male with full decisional capacity who was in the final stages of ALS. Kevorkian himself administered a lethal injection.
On March 26, 1999, Kevorkian was charged with first-degree homicide and the delivery of a controlled substance when he administered the lethal injection to Thomas Youk. During the videotape, Kevorkian dared the authorities to try to convict him or stop him from carrying out assisted suicides. The judge sentenced Kevorkian to serve a 10-25 year prison sentence and told him: "You were on bond to another judge when you committed this offense; you were not licensed to practice medicine when you committed this offense and you hadn't been licensed for eight years. And you had the audacity to go on national television, show the world what you did and dare the legal system to stop you. Well, sir, consider yourself stopped."
CBS and Mike Wallace were accused of hyping this particular venture because it was a sweeps week. Wallace responded “Well, I'm unaware of what the promotional aspect of this was. We're talking about the journalism involved, and we're talking about just exactly what we did.”
Do you feel the decision to show the filming of the assisted suicide was in poor taste? Could 60 Minutes have told this story without showing the man die? Why or why not? Was this story sensationalism or journalism, what differentiates between the two?
Compared to other crime and justice issues, are correctional stories newsworthy? Why are celebrity and newsworthy offenders like Scott Peterson and OJ Simpson exposed to public scrutiny before and during their trials, but largely ignored once they are in a correctional facility?
Justify your answers using examples and reasoning.
