jeffnuttalx: Ethical Dilemma? Let the Potter Box Sway You

The Potter Box, not to be confused with Pandora?s Box is a model that incorporates four steps to reach an ethical decision. The steps of the box here is (1) understanding the facts, (2) outlining the values inherent in the decision, (3) applying relevant philosophical principles and (4) articulating a loyalty. Stuck in an ethical dilemma? Whip out the box and it?ll guide you on what to do when the grounds are shaky in your decision-making.

To test out this model, I used a case-study called The Pimp, The Prostitute, and the Preacher. In this case the city was attempting to arrest pimps rather than the prostitutes and their clients trying to nip the problem in the bud. But to do that, the hoes and their clients had to testify in court to air all of their dirty laundry. Some basic facts were that some girls were underage and that they could not prove money came into the pimps? hands for sexual acts.

Step 1: Obviously as a reporter at the court trials, you have all the information on what happened, who is involved and how the case is going. But as a reporter you have the choice on how much of that information should be published? Since the prostitutes in this case were underage, obviously their names shouldn?t be in print.

Step 2 (Outlining the Values): This is where things get tricky. Whereas I value the truth to high regard, I also really do not like meddling in others? relationships and personal affairs. I am big on retaining people?s privacy on certain matters, such as the identities of underage prostitutes.

But hold up! Let?s say one of the clients was a priest, the supposed mediator between the holy realm and Earth, a community leader, a role model, and a loyal ?family man? who lives by the Bible. Do you give him the same privacy you give the girls? Or do you find that holding a secret of his secret affairs and betrayal to his community is too much so you have to publish the truth?

Step 3: Is omitting some information from the trial justifiable? Yes, obviously. But is omitting information about the priest justifiable? I think so, to print his name would be to discredit him fully and would require many follow-up stories on both him and the girls (it is what the public craves). Printing his name could lead to the newspaper turning almost into a tabloid magazine with gossip stories. It would also take away from the original story, underage girls acting as prostitutes at the local mall.

Step 4: With new facts in the case (such as the Preacher being a client), I?m not sure where my loyalties now lie with the case and printing his name is still up in the air because there is conflicting loyalties in myself, such as the need to seek the truth and defend it always, but also the need to respect one?s privacy if it is not pivotal to my story.

Side note: Let me just say that I?m disgusted by a preacher soliciting sex by underage girls, although the case-study did not mention how the trials came out, I hope the clients of the girls were also charged with accounts of statutory rape.