Ethics Assignment # 4

In the article, The Right to Privacy, by Samuel D. Warren and Louis D. Brandeis, the importance of the privacy of an individual and his/her property (tangible and intangible) is discussed. If the authors of this article were alive today, they would one again render the fact on page 196 that “The press is overstepping in every direction the obvious bounds of propriety and of decency. Gossip is no longer the resource of the idle and of the vicious, but has become a trade.…It belittles by inverting the relative importance of things, thus dwarfing the thoughts and aspirations of a people.” The San Bernardino shooters murdered fourteen people, and injured twenty-one, but what about the other shooters that aren’t Muslim? White mass killers are never called “terrorists” by the media. The media never blew up the shooting at the Charleston church where Dylann Storm Roof killed nine African Americans, or Robert Lewis Dear who opened fire at a Planned Parenthood Clinic. They were not slandered like these two Muslim shooters are by the media. White male privilege is obvious, but it is not recognized. It is easier to see the faults of racial minorities and women than the prevalence of white males. Maybe because it is taught that it shouldn’t be acknowledged because there is guilt that comes with societal entitlement. How many shootings have been by white males and how many have been by racial minorities? Since 1982, “mentally ill” white men have committed 64% of the shootings. The media exploited the San Bernardino shooters, and their personal information because of their religion and the color of their skin. Television networks, journalists, Reuters employees, and neighbors were freely allowed to enter the home of the Malik family. The landlord broke open the lock on the door and let random people enter. Is that even legal?  The press is definitely overstepping decency. Family photos were rummaged on live TV. The media has exposed every single detail of their life on the news. FBI case with Apple is not even about trying to get to ISIS, it is about getting authority. Cracking into the information of this one phone is not going to make a difference because the shooters are still going to be dead and still “linked” to ISIS. Are we not already trying to stop ISIS? This information is not going to decide if we are still going to terminate ISIS. The media’s bigot bullsh*t and breeding hatred is not going to stop ISIS either. As stated in the article, “When personal gossip attains the dignity of print, and crowds the space available for matters of real interest to the community, what wonder that the ignorant and thoughtless mistake its relative importance…” on page 196. The FBI let everyone know what they were doing with the phone, what makes you think that they won’t let the data on the phone spread to the media? The FBI exposed every detail on the Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s life, as well as his family and deceased brother’s. The media is there to appease and captivate those that are curious and ignorant enough to buy into this. The FBI cannot be trusted.