Hidden-camera ethics

   KOAA/Channels 5&30's investigation into District Attorney John Newsome drinking during business hours clearly has the whole town talking, and it could have political or legal repercussions.

    However, KOAA reporter James Jarman's use of a hidden camera to film Newsome raises some thorny ethical questions.

    The Gazette asked Al Tompkins, a former television news director and reporter who teaches ethics at the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank, and Barbara Cochran, president of the Radio and Television News Directors Association, a few of these questions. We also asked KOAA News Director Cindy Aubrey how the station approached the story.

    Question: Is filming someone surreptitiously unethical?

    "It has to do with reasonable expectations of privacy," Tompkins said.

    "If you're sitting in a bar and you're sitting out in public, I think it's very difficult to argue that you have a reasonable expectation of privacy," he said, although he emphasized that he hasn't seen KOAA's story.

    Some stories simply can't be done another way, Cochran said.

    "If you're going to make allegations of this kind, you need to have more than anonymous sources," she said.

    "Most stations view this as a news gathering tool of last resort," Cochran said. "If this is a story of importance to the community, then they will go."

    KOAA turned to the hidden camera only after exhausting all other methods of getting the story, Aubrey said.

    "We don't use hidden cameras often, and we use them with great care and only when we think a story is important to the public," she said. "We felt like this was the only way we would get this story told."

    Before doing the investigation, Aubrey said KOAA consulted with Poynter, the station's attorneys and the general manager.

    Question: Did Jarman or KOAA have a responsibility to call police if they believed Newsome was driving under the influence of alcohol?

    Aubrey said KOAA had two crews undercover at the tavern and that they didn't have time to compare notes with each other before Newsome left the bar, and so didn't definitively know how much he had drunk by that point.

    "At that point, we didn't have all of our information," she said. "Every reporter and videographer will be in a situation where they are videotaping an event and, if something goes wrong, at what point do you make the decision to leave your role as a reporter?"

    If a reporter sees someone breaking the law, the reporter has the same obligation as anyone else, Tompkins said.

    "If they see someone they believe to be impaired, it seems to me they have a duty to report it," he said.

    Cochran wasn't as absolute.

    "It would depend on whether someone's life were being imminently threatened," she said. "It's also, ‘Were there other people witnessing it?'"

    Question: In the report, Jarman said KOAA reporters had seen Newsome drinking during business hours on several occasions. Should KOAA have aired the story earlier? Was it held for the May sweeps period, when local TV ratings are measured?

    "Absolutely not," Aubrey said. "We would never hold a story for sweeps. A feature piece on grocery store prices, perhaps. (Holding) a story of this significance would be terribly irresponsible."

    And that's the general rule, Tompkins said.

    "Don't go under undercover just because it's sweeps month," he said. "The reason to go undercover is not to generate ratings and promotion. The reason to go undercover is to generate stories of real value to journalism."

    For example, he said, it would be irresponsible to hold a hypothetical story about tainted meat in a grocery store.

    "There are times when it becomes really important that you report your findings and not withhold them," he said. "Your first obligation is obviously to the public."

    Question: Newsome told The Gazette he felt KOAA didn't give him sufficient opportunity to respond. Is that fair?

    "We gave him every opportunity to respond, and he chose not to," Aubrey said. "We went to his office (Wednesday) and waited in the lobby for at least half an hour and asked to see him. He granted interviews to two other television stations and The Gazette, but would not respond to us."

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0275 or awineke@gazette.com