Everyday Ethics

First some background.

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Jacobson, of course, is the now-former WMAQ-TV reporter whose career at the station came to an abrupt end this week. She left the station in what the Chicago Tribune called a "negotiated exit, effective immediately, from the NBC-owned station, where she had worked since 1996."

That exit followed questions about Jacobson's professionalism and ethics in reporting on a high-profile, ongoing criminal investigation. Jacobson had been covering the disappearance of Lisa Stebic, a young mother of two who has been missing since late April. Stebic still lived in a Chicago-area home with her husband, Craig, while the two were going through a divorce. Lisa Stebic was taking legal steps to remove her husband from the house when she disappeared.

As the Associated Press reported, "No one has been charged in the case," and "Stebic's husband was the last person to see her, but police have said he is not a suspect in the disappearance."

On Friday, July 6, Jacobson went to Craig Stebic's house. By Jacobson's account, it was her day off; she and her children were on their way to go swimming.

Jacobson reportedly got a phone call from Craig Stebic's sister inviting her to go to the Stebic home to discuss the case.

In what Jacobson called a "lapse in judgment," she drove there, with her kids and wearing her swimming suit.

Jacobson now recognizes that decision was more than just a "lapse."

Someone -- it's unclear who -- videotaped Jacobson as she, wearing a swimming suit and a towel, spent time going in and out of Craig Stebic's house.

A competing station in Chicago, CBS-owned WBBM-TV, aired video of that scene with Jacobson at Stebic's house. That was the damning evidence.

But, as the Chicago Sun-Times reports, WBBM is not fully disclosing its role in this matter. "Carol Fowler, vice president of news at Channel 2, wouldn't say who shot the video or how it came into the station's possession… 'This was a tape that fell into our lap… it was certainly provocative, but I wasn't sure we were going to do anything with it.'"

The Sun-Times said, "Once the tape became public knowledge, however, Channel 2 chose to air what Fowler called 'relevant excerpts.'"

Top managers at WMAQ rapidly realized they had a really bad situation on their hands. They presumably made the decision that Jacobson had to go. Some believe Jacobson deserved that fate. Others might suggest the station was quickly cutting its losses and protecting its own posterior.

OK. So we have another one of those sordid stories about journalists hitting ethical land mines. Amy Jacobson set off an explosion and she suffers mightily.

Lessons learned from my vantage point:

Lesson #1: Think before you act. Think hard. Anticipate what can go wrong. Journalists, especially journalists covering crimes and law enforcement investigations, should always be looking ahead to see where the ethical minefield is located. It's necessary to cultivate sources and to take advantage of opportunities to learn more. It's also necessary to be exceptionally careful in explosive territory.

Lesson #2: Ask for help. Don't try to be the hero cowboy or cowgirl on your own. If you find yourself in the kind of situation Amy Jacobson was in, give a call to your news director or editor. Tell him or her what's going on, and seek guidance. That call may help you set your professional compass and your ethical bearings.

Lesson #3: "Friendly but not friends." That's an ages-old standard for how journalists should interact with those they cover. I don't know how significant Amy Jacobson's connection was with Craig Stebic or others in the Stebic family. But based on what we know about what took place that Friday afternoon, Jacobson's connections with the family are highly problematic.

Lesson #4: Watch out for "myopic zeal." That was the term used in the external examination of the CBS News botched investigation of President Bush's military history. Journalists who are chasing a "good" story can easily and quickly become so intensely focused on the chase that they lose common sense, professional perspective and ethical judgment.

Lesson #5: Bosses must pay attention to quality control -- all the time. I don't know what conversations the WMAQ news managers had been having with Amy Jacobson as she covered the Stebic story in recent weeks. But I do know that in many ethics explosions in newsrooms across the land, news managers had been looking the wrong way when clues emerged about potential unprofessional behavior or unethical methods of reporting. The best of news managers detect weaknesses in the ethics underbelly of a newsroom. They recognize when reporters are taking unnecessary risks. They ask lots and lots of questions before journalists wander into ethical and legal minefields. The best of news managers make sure that both the quality of their process and the product of their journalism measure up at every step of the way.

And, how about a few questions for the other station involved in this story?

Question #1: Why won't the news managers at WBBM be more open about how they obtained that video of Jacobson at the Stebic house? They too should be held accountable, just as they held Jacobson and WMAQ accountable. 

Question #2: Who shot that video? Was it a WBBM photojournalist? Was it a neighbor? If the latter, how did WBBM authenticate the content and context of that video?

Question #3: What about legal and ethical issues in shooting that videotape of Jacobson and other individuals in the backyard of Craig Stebic's house? What Illinois laws might apply to someone videotaping people who had a reasonable presumption of privacy? Did the person who videotaped those scenes of Jacobson and others at the house violate any laws? Act unethically?

Question #4: If WBBM managers eventually believed that it was important to air some of the video, why did they wait until other news organizations had reported on the story before airing that tape? Is "The cat's out of the bag" their best argument?

Questions to be asked. Answers to be sought.

Lots of lessons to be learned.