In the movie “Absence of Malice,” Megan Carter, the protagonist, is an investigative journalist for a Miami newspaper determined to do whatever it takes to get her story. She is manipulated by a D.A. led by Bob Balaban and Elliot Rossen into writing a story on a local man, Michael Gallagher, a liquor salesman. He seems to be honest however, his family has a past involving crime making him a suspect in the investigation of the murder of Joey Diaz, a local labor leader. Gallagher suddenly becomes famous due to this investigation and not in a good way. He began losing clients and Carter unveiled his friend’s secrets to the public. Gallagher and Carter then become involved but she refuses to reveal her sources and no good journalist should however she begins to doubt the accusations against Gallagher and the accuracy of the entire murder case. Gallagher outsmarts Carter since she never check her facts she prints a story that turned the situation into an utter mess and …show more content…
It would be harder to find ethical situations in this movie. The main loyalties Carter had was to her profession, her employer and herself. She didn’t value truth and if you ask me that is a disloyalty to the profession of journalism in and of itself. She did not value her clients, the people she interviewed, she just wanted a good story and thought that if she had good intentions that it didn’t matter whether or not the story was true. She was also insensitive towards Teresa Perrone regarding her alibi for Gallagher and her abortion story. Immanuel Kant would’ve probably said that Carter’s intentions were of practical reason but not pure reason. Balaban and Rossen treated Carter as an end not a mean by manipulating her and using her for their own selfish reasons. One could say that motives based on duty makes moral decisions right, however, in my opinion, these decision weren’t moral so this principle would not
“She still today never told me she loved me…never… never in her life … it’s too hard to explain,” says Anthony Sowell as he mentions his mother while he is being interrogated by Cleveland Homicide Detective (Sberna). The classic neighbor that every family wishes to have, friendly, helpful and caring was holding back numerous secrets. In Anthony Sowell’s actions of the rape, beatings and murder of 11 innocent women, he demonstrates the qualities of a human monster while showing how nurture creates a personality as well as proving that humans are capable of creation more fear than those who are written about in fiction.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a non-fictional novel dedicated to describing the life and experiences of a woman by the name of Henrietta Lacks who’s cervical cells became famous for a multitude of reasons. Henrietta was an African American woman born in the 1920’s who developed an aggressive form of cervical cancer and was treated by doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Her infamous story began when doctors began treating Henrietta with radium and took tissue samples from her cervix without her knowing. Cancer researchers began testing Henrietta’s cells (labeled HeLa) and found that they, unlike many other human cells, multiplied at rapid rates and almost seemed to be “immortal” or never-ending. These cells were shared, sold, and researched
It shows in the scene where Carter gets manipulated into writing the story about how Michael was involved in a serious murder case. They tried to make him the prime suspect, when really he was not even involved in the case. This is an example of invasion of privacy in which we talked about in class. It means to the intrusion into the personal life of another without just cause. We also talked about how editors were powerful decision makers and that was portrayed in Absence of Malice. The editor in the film makes Megan Carter write the non-true story about Michael Gallagher. Libel is published defamation of character, which is slander. An example of libel in the film would be Gallagher. His reputation got tarnished, and it affected his occupation. The film portrayed woman in a negative way by making them easy to manipulate. In the film, one of the main characters Megan Carter is forced write slander about Gallagher which shows how woman were thought of back
The characters in the novel, including the operative himself are willing to lie, cheat, and kill in cold blood for their own personal gain. Although infidelity, greed, and self-preservation are expected from characters involved with the murders and inner crime ring; the story becomes more complicated when characters like the operative, and chief of police begin to get their hands dirty. Bringing the age-old crime ad punishment theme to a higher tier where the reader is unable to make an impulsive decision on who is a “bad guy”, and who is a “good
Ethics and morality goes back 4,000 years to the Mesopotamian Code of Hammurabi. This code outlined ethics for builders by holding them accountable for their work. For example, if a builder builds a house and the roof tumbles down, the builders must repair it out of their own pocket. Although, this concept may seem simple, it embodies principles that would last throughout the ages (Feiser, 2015). The Lilly Ledbetter case is no different from those times where principles and accountability were held in high regards.
Black and white, right and wrong; do decisions that simple and clear even exist? Does a decision ever mean gaining everything without giving anything up? Many characters in To Kill A Mockingbird are forced to make difficult, heart wrenching decisions that have no clear right answer. Harper Lee presents many of these important decisions in To Kill A Mockingbird as ethical dilemmas, or situations that require a choice between two difficult alternatives. Both of these alternatives have unpleasant aspects and question morals and ethics. A person is put in an awkward position, with their mind saying contradicting things. These dilemmas are presented in many different ways. The decisions in the beginning of the book are simple and can be solved quite easily, yet they are symbolic of later decisions. Other dilemmas place adult-like decisions in the lap of a child. One dilemma concerned a man burdened with the strict traditions of the South. Then there are the two biggest dilemmas, Atticus' decision to take the case and Heck Tate's choice between truth and the emotional well being of a man. Lee's ingenious storyline is established by these crucial and mentally arduous choices faced by the characters.
In the film Antwone Fisher (2002), we witness the evolving therapeutic relationship of a psychiatrist, Dr. Jerome Davenport, and his client, Antwone Fisher. As a member of the military, Antwone is mandated to report to therapy sessions with Dr. Davenport after an altercation with a fellow serviceman. The relationship between Antwone and Dr. Davenport evolves beyond their mandated sessions and allows for the exploration of personal issues for both individuals. As a result of this, many ethical dilemmas occur that force Dr. Davenport to make decisions both in line with and against various principle ethics.
First of all, I enjoy the movie “The Lorax”; my children and I watch it often. Based on a book by Dr. Seuss, “The Lorax” is about a man named the Once-ler, who is an entrepreneur in search of making it big. The Once-ler stumbles upon an untouched wilderness where beautiful Truffula trees grow everywhere. The trees are just what he needs, so he harvests the Truffula Trees to create his product called a Thneed (a thing that all people need). The Once-ler meets a creature called the Lorax, who speaks for the trees and the interests of the natural environment and its native residents. The Lorax advises him not to cut down and destroy all the trees but the Once-lers greediness to mass produce the Thneeds leads to the extinction of Truffula Trees,
Stephen L. Carter goes on to say, “Although honesty is a virtue of importance, it is a different virtue from integrity” meaning that it is related to integrity but does not define all of it. As individual will listen to what they wan to hear without knowing the true definition of a word like integrity. There is more to it than just speaking the words a person must understand the true definition. A society looks at the word integrity as everyone speaks of this work but society does not know anything rally about it truly. In example to what Carter beliefs that many individuals act up selfishness because society has made them believe that by saying the truth yes do help oneself but is not an act of integrity when the truth hurts those around. The way to look at is society as a whole is becoming more a person can be entirely honest without ever lifting a finger during the hard work of discernment that integrity. Carter gives this example as to how integrity is close to honesty but at the same time not quite. A Carter’s mother use to say, “You don’t have to tell people everything you know” know that a person can be honest but not have integrity which only makes honesty worth
In the movie The Proposal starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds, an ethical dilemma is shown by Sandra Bullock’s character, Margaret Tate. Margaret is the executive editor in chief of a book publishing company and Andrew Paxton is her assistant. Margaret’s visa is soon to be revoked as she violated some of the terms in her work visa. Andrew has worked his way up at the book publishing company and dreams of being an editor at the company. With Margaret on the verge of deportation, she expresses to Andrew that this could also set back all of his accomplishments and he would have to start back at the bottom if he didn’t have her to help him.
crime or not, O.J. has shown no signs of guilt. This can be interpreted as
If one day you were to discover your entire life has been an elaborate lie, how would you react? Would you continue to live in the made up society? Or would you go out and search for the truth? In the 1998 film, The Truman Show, Truman Burbank is unaware that he has been living in a constructed society that is displayed on T.V. for the world to see. The show is called “The Truman Show” and it stars Burbank as the main character. The manipulated reality of the hit show causes millions of people to tune in on the 24/7 broadcast, of a man living in a picture perfect society. The ethics depicted in the reality of the “The Truman Show” are morally wrong as it illustrates the idea that a “perfect” life means happiness, unexpected and unplanned circumstances are not the norm, and the idea that there is nothing in the world worth going out and discovering.
In the novel Primal Fear by William Diehl, there are many ethical dilemmas in the entire novel. This is to be expected because the plot of the novel was centered around a court case. The stakeholders involved were the attorneys, judges, the citizens of Chicago, as well as the people being defended in court. The three main characters of the novel were the ones involved in the major ethical dilemmas. With the center of the novel being around the court case, there are many different aspects pertaining to the law. The setting of the novel was important in the ethical point of view seeing as the fundamentals of ethics state that just because something is ethical doesn’t necessarily make it legal. Having this in mind, I was able to connect the principles
Justice and ethics are, in part, conceptually what defines right and wrong. For many people, this stems from religious traditions, however there are historically, and current, instances when a religious regime grows so powerful it becomes virtually unchecked. To be clear, I do not interpret any religion as good or bad. However, from a historical and political perspective, religious institutions, customs, and laws have been used to hide heinous crimes. The movie, “Spotlight”, is based on a true story about a team of investigative journalists at the Boston Globe. The Spotlight Team was comprised of multiple reporters, namely: Marty Baron, Ben Bradlee, Jr., Sacha Pfeiffer, Mike Rezendes, and Walter Robinson. The film starts in 2001, when the team
Many people are capable of making their own decisions and sometimes these include ethical choices. This is an idea that contains making a rational decision between what is right and wrong. Most people struggle with making the right decision to get the intended, desired outcome. It is a choice that centers on personal conscience. One may know the right choice by instinct, but there are times in which people have to think about the outcome and challenge their morals. In the novel, The Devil and Miss Prym a young girl Chantal finds herself in a tough situation when a stranger visits town and offers her a choice to break her morals and steal, or give the opportunity to the village to murder for money. She tells the village and they decide to kill the eldest, Chantal stands up to them and eventually the decision is made not to murder and the stranger is forced to admit that people are neither good or evil, they are simply human. A film that also faces decisions is Sophie’s Choice where a young mother is sent