Catherine Paneral
Jour 4470
Blog One
Topic: The need for ethics in media and business
decision-making
Ethics vs.
Politics
Politics and business-decision making are ethical issues
that take place in the media every day. America is a business that has already
hit a downfall thanks to who? Who is making these decisions that are unethical
causing our country to slowly spiral downward? The role of ethics can go so
many ways in politics when accepting gifts or money, using government position
and following through with promises made to the country.
According to the website of The United States Office of
Government Ethics, it says that they establish standards of ethical conduct for the
executive branch, ensure transparency in government through financial disclosure,
educate executive branch employees and promote good governance. But what I
wonder is how much unethical business is going on under the table? Is there
unethical business is going on that the USOGE is turning their heads away from?
The battle of ethics in politics shouldn’t really be as
big of an issue as it is. Maybe because I am young and naïve I don’t know
anything but I would think that if the government, politicians and president
would make every decision ethically then our country might be a little better
off.
It is our responsibility as humans to remind ourselves to
be ethical. I would say for the most part people are good and try to
distinguish a role of ethics in their daily lives. We go to work, pay our taxes
and raise our children to do the same while doing the right thing. Why is it then
that the people running our country seem to have issues with ethics?
Newt Gingrich said “The
destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media makes it harder
to govern this country, harder to attract decent people to run for public
office.” So is it the media that made the presidential candidates throw
ethics out the window? The politicians
have lost a good chunk of their ethics and values and will continue to play the
blame game. Watching these presidential debates had turned into a finger
pointing match. They throw the competition under the bus and point out every
wrong thing they have done in their life. Excuse me, but could you please tell
me what you plan on doing for my country that you are trying to get the rights
to run instead?
Every election season these presidential candidates
advertise to Americans everything they plan on doing to better our country. No
taxes. More jobs. Free healthcare. These candidates are promising our country
something that they are not following through with. THAT IS FALSE ADVERTISEMENT
PEOPLE. Is that ethical? Telling the people of your country that you are
running that you are going to do something and then not do it?
Should our government just set minimal but attainable
goals instead of making big promises that are not followed through? What about
this big debt issue? Why are they spending money that we don't have? Is it
ethical to spend more than you budgeted for?
Back up two paragraphs. Is it the media that drives the
president to promise things he won’t follow through with? Obama promised several different things he
was going to do during his term as president. I watched a brief recap of the
State of the Union by a talented reporter, Larry Mendte. He listed a few of the
promises Obama made and then noted that they were the unfulfilled promised
addressed from last year’s State of the Union.
Apparently Obama promised to do some things that he never
even attempted to do according to the segment. In last year’s State of the
Union Obama promised he would:
·
Introduce a new jobs bill
·
Get rid of no child left behind and introduce a
new education bill
·
Reform the tax system
·
Introduce a new immigration bill
·
End oil subsidies
·
Meet with republican leaders once a month
None of that happened. While I do understand that the man
is busy running our country, reports show that he did not even attempt any of
these promises. Larry Mendte said “and that’s why the State of the Union
address is meaningless. It’s a laundry list of things that sound good but will
never get done.”
I am not just singling out Obama. I know there is not one
president or politician who has ever followed through with every promise he
made to our country. I just want these men, and future women, to not forget
their ethics and values when they are running our country. If everyone could
simply base every decision they make off of ethics I think we could get our
country back on their feet and continue to be the greatest country in the
world.
Sources:
http://www.facebook.com/people/Catherine-Paneral/1525330506
— this is a link to my Facebook that has the news segment for Larry Mendte. It
was shown on the Eye Opener on CW33 but they did not post it to their website.
I asked a friend who works for the Eye Opener to email the segment to me but
the file was too large. Instead he posted it to my Facebook wall so you can
view it there. Point for social media.
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