Moral Issues Involved in Journalism

I think a current example that has to deal with moral issues in reporting and journalism is Tiger Wood's current position in the lime light. Some may argue that the content of Wood's personal life should not be all over the magazines and television. But who is to blame? The leak from his mistresses or was he betrayed by a reporter? Either way the public blow out of his relationships has seriously turned his reputation upside down. Being a professional golfer is automatically called a public figure in which the media is highly involved in his life. But is it morally wrong to present personal information about a persons sex life to the whole public? These are things that reporters think about. This makes me wonder if the reporters who have written the lengthy detailed descriptions of wood's individual affairs, feel guilty for poisoning the athletes reputation. These words have ruined almost all of the relationships between him and his sponsors and has certainly made me feel different about him. Lets say that Tiger woods told this to someone in confidentiality but then they went and wrote an article about it. I feel as though that is wrong and i would feel bad doing that. I think in a reporters mind they sometimes are focusing on only the story and their job and not taking feelings into account. I feel like their is a line that can be crossed in these types of situations. If a reporter told Wood's they would not write or tell anyone about the "events" then i feel that is a big secret and would get a bad reputation in the reporting business. However if a reporter didn't promise anything, it is the reporters job to report their findings, although it may damage someone's life. In Wood's position i would think he has reason to place blame on his mistresses who seem to be coming out of the wood work every other day. In that case those women are breaking their confidentiality with Tiger which they may feel is morally right or wrong.

Either way there a lot of moral issues involved in these types of situations. I think that even though tiger woods is not one of the regular "celebutants" that gets involved with these type of tabloids drama he should still be aware that he is a famous athlete that is very newsworthy. Basically i feel that the source of the news story is responsible for his/her reputation so they should handle who knows what and who they are going to tell.