Raymer talks on ethics at TEDx Carmel High School
Professor Steve Raymer delivered a TEDx Talk on journalism ethics Oct. 10 at the Eleven Fifty Academy in Carmel, Indiana. Titled “Knowing Ethics, Living Ethics: Challenges that Come in a Heartbeat,” his talk looked at how ethical challenges — conflicts between deeply held personal and professional principles — come at inopportune and unexpected times, often on deadline, in today’s 24-7 news environment.
The event was sponsored by Camel High School and organized by English teacher Allyson Wells, BAJ’08, a former student of Raymer’s.
Raymer citied a personal experience in the Kabul airport in the Afghanistan capital then under occupation by the Soviet Army in 1984. A terrorist bomb exploded about 50 yards from Raymer while he was waiting for his bags, killing 30 people and wounding more than 100, according to The New York Times.
Raymer used medical training learned as a young officer in Vietnam to put a tourniquet on a passenger whose arm was severed and aided other wondered, but did not take pictures. The editor of National Geographic later challenged Raymer’s decision, but other editors, who felt being a Good Samaritan was more important than any photograph of the carnage, supported the long-time magazine photographer. National Geographic had no code of ethics at the time.
“This is why we have a required courses in media ethics and values today, and why we spend so much time with students helping them to learn the process of ‘doing ethics’ and making ethical decisions under pressure,” Raymer explained. “We recognize that decisions made in an instant can affect the lives, well-being and the reputations of our fellow citizens — as well as our own professional reputations. And as I say, these ethical challenges can come in a heartbeat — or the flash of an explosion.”