Dan Rather weighs in on gene editing ethics, Donald Trump's politics, and the future of America itself.
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Showing posts with label Ethics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ethics. Show all posts
5/5/19
11/10/18
Freedom of the Press: Should Reporters Boycott White House Press Briefings After CNN Press Badge Revoked? - by Mary Louise Kelly
KELLY: And to this question of whether the White House press corps should stand with CNN, should boycott future briefings, what do you think?
KNOX: CNN has not asked other outlets to do that. You know, in this kind of situation, I'll take a lot of my cues from what the network itself is doing in response. Right now I'm making a public and private case to the administration to reconsider this decision. But we'll see what CNN decides to do.
KELLY: So at the moment it's business as usual, reporters who are with hard passes coming and going from the White House, filing from there as they would on any other day.
KNOX: With the exception of frenetic email traffic about what happened yesterday, yes.
KELLY: Your email box is overflowing?
KNOX: It is overflowing.
KELLY: I was going to ask. Are - you must also be hearing from people who are siding with the White House position on this, saying his questioning was crossing a line into being obnoxious, and they have a right to revoke a hard pass if they want to.
KNOX: I am of course hearing from those people. I will simply say, though, that it's a pretty basic principle that a president does not get to decide who covers them. And one of the things that I've heard from many colleagues nationally and internationally is essentially if they can do this today to Jim, they can do it tomorrow to somebody else.
Note EU-Digest: There should not even be a question about boycotting the White House Press Conferences, since most of the stuff coming out of Mr.Trumps mouth is just hot air anyway. The answer to the question should be ABSOLUTELY. Unfortunately the media is not really independent anymore as they are all controlled by large corporations and it has all got to do with hype and profits.
Read more: Should Reporters Boycott White House Press Briefings After CNN Press Badge Revoked? : NPR
KNOX: CNN has not asked other outlets to do that. You know, in this kind of situation, I'll take a lot of my cues from what the network itself is doing in response. Right now I'm making a public and private case to the administration to reconsider this decision. But we'll see what CNN decides to do.
KELLY: So at the moment it's business as usual, reporters who are with hard passes coming and going from the White House, filing from there as they would on any other day.
KNOX: With the exception of frenetic email traffic about what happened yesterday, yes.
KELLY: Your email box is overflowing?
KNOX: It is overflowing.
KELLY: I was going to ask. Are - you must also be hearing from people who are siding with the White House position on this, saying his questioning was crossing a line into being obnoxious, and they have a right to revoke a hard pass if they want to.
KNOX: I am of course hearing from those people. I will simply say, though, that it's a pretty basic principle that a president does not get to decide who covers them. And one of the things that I've heard from many colleagues nationally and internationally is essentially if they can do this today to Jim, they can do it tomorrow to somebody else.
Note EU-Digest: There should not even be a question about boycotting the White House Press Conferences, since most of the stuff coming out of Mr.Trumps mouth is just hot air anyway. The answer to the question should be ABSOLUTELY. Unfortunately the media is not really independent anymore as they are all controlled by large corporations and it has all got to do with hype and profits.
Read more: Should Reporters Boycott White House Press Briefings After CNN Press Badge Revoked? : NPR
4/6/17
Questionable Ethics: 'Winter White House' a Winning Brand for Trump's Business - By J. Bykowicz and T. Spence
This
week, President Donald Trump writes his members-only oceanfront
property deeper into American history books by meeting there with
visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping _ a move that could financially
benefit Trump.
No doubt Florida's
oceanfront Mar-a-Lago resort is an impressive site for a summit between
the presidents of the U.S. and China. And it's a pretty nice business
advertisement, too, for the owner of the luxurious, members-only private
property.
That would be Donald J. Trump.
Even before this week's summit, President Trump
and his aides had begun referring to Mar-a-Lago as the "Winter White
House," a marketing coup for a man who has made millions selling his
personal brand. Now the president is writing his property deeper into
American history books by meeting there with China's Xi Jinping.
The two-day summit, partly to discuss sensitive
trade issues, follows five previous weekend trips that Trump has made to
Mar-a-Lago in the 12 weeks he has been president. On his fourth weekend
in office, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe joined him there, and the
two heads of state huddled on the restaurant's patio before making
headlines with a televised joint response to a North Korean missile
test.
VIP visits to presidential homes are a tradition
dating to shortly before World War II, when Franklin D. Roosevelt began
inviting dignitaries to his Hyde Park estate north of New York City,
according to the U.S. State Department's historical website. More
recently, George H.W. Bush brought leaders to the family's
Kennebunkport, Maine, compound, and his son George W. Bush invited them
to his Crawford, Texas, ranch. President Barack Obama hosted Xi at
Sunnylands, an estate in the California desert formerly owned by late
philanthropists Walter and Leonore Annenberg.
But Mar-a-Lago isn't just a vacation home for
Trump. It's a for-profit part of his global real estate empire. That
makes "Winter White House" more than a charming phrase; it's good for
business.
Breaking with presidential precedent, Trump held onto ownership of his businesses when he took office, meaning he makes money when his properties do well. The resort doubled its membership fee to $200,000 after he was elected. And "Winter White House" is working its way into marketing materials. When Trump is in town, Mar-a-Lago's hotel rooms and restaurant reservations fill up fast.
Breaking with presidential precedent, Trump held onto ownership of his businesses when he took office, meaning he makes money when his properties do well. The resort doubled its membership fee to $200,000 after he was elected. And "Winter White House" is working its way into marketing materials. When Trump is in town, Mar-a-Lago's hotel rooms and restaurant reservations fill up fast.
Read more: "Winter White House' a Winning Brand for Trump's Business | Washington, DC News | US News
7/5/15
Insurance Industry: Ethics in the Insurance Industry rated poorly - by Marco Bendinelli
Whether it is for legal, personal or humanitarian reasons, ethics
can’t be ignored, and this is especially true for the insurance
industry.
Unfortunately, the current system isn’t perfect, and newspapers are often rife with stories of people falling out with their providers for a range of issues. An annual ethics poll by Gallup, for instance, has always seen insurance companies fare poorly. In over 35 years, no more than 15 percent of the participants considered the insurance industry to have “high ethical standards.” Clearly, this is something that needs to change.
Much of the ethical issues in insurance are a case of utilitarianism and deontology. The former perspective focuses on the greater good or collective, while the latter believes in personal duties. Insurance businesses are arguably utilitarian, as they look at the larger picture.
An individual customer, on the other hand, is somewhat deontological; they consider their needs first and foremost, with no relevant interest outside their insurance policy. Many problems occur when insurance providers fail to understand these concerns, conducting practices that simply ignore personal objections.
Read more: Ethics in the Insurance Industry
Unfortunately, the current system isn’t perfect, and newspapers are often rife with stories of people falling out with their providers for a range of issues. An annual ethics poll by Gallup, for instance, has always seen insurance companies fare poorly. In over 35 years, no more than 15 percent of the participants considered the insurance industry to have “high ethical standards.” Clearly, this is something that needs to change.
Much of the ethical issues in insurance are a case of utilitarianism and deontology. The former perspective focuses on the greater good or collective, while the latter believes in personal duties. Insurance businesses are arguably utilitarian, as they look at the larger picture.
An individual customer, on the other hand, is somewhat deontological; they consider their needs first and foremost, with no relevant interest outside their insurance policy. Many problems occur when insurance providers fail to understand these concerns, conducting practices that simply ignore personal objections.
Read more: Ethics in the Insurance Industry
4/4/14
Ecology, Ethics, Anarchism seen through the eyes of Noam Chomsky - by Javier Sethness
There can be little doubt about the centrality and severity of the
environmental crisis in the present day. Driven by the mindless
"grow-or-die" imperative of capitalism, humanity's destruction of the
biosphere has reached and even surpassed
various critical thresholds, whether in terms of carbon emissions,
biodiversity loss, ocean acidification, freshwater depletion, or
chemical pollution. Extreme weather events can be seen pummeling the
globe, from the Philippines - devastated by Typhoon Haiyan in November
of last year - to California, which is presently suffering from the
worst drought in centuries.
As Nafeez Ahmed has shown, a recently published study funded in part by NASA warns of impending civilizational collapse without radical changes to address social inequality and overconsumption. Truthout's own Dahr Jamail has written a number of critical pieces lately that have documented the profundity of the current trajectory toward anthropogenic climate disruption (ACD) and global ecocide: In a telling metaphor, he likens the increasingly mad weather patterns brought about by ACD to an electrocardiogram of a "heart in defibrillation."
Rather than conclude that such distressing trends follow intrinsically from an "aggressive" and "sociopathic" human nature, reasonable observers should likely associate the outgrowth of these tendencies with the dominance of the capitalist system, for, as Oxfam noted in a January 2014 report, the richest 85 individuals in the world possess as much wealth as a whole half of humanity - the 3.5 billion poorest people - while just 90 corporations have been responsible for a full two-thirds of the carbon emissions generated since the onset of industrialism.
As these staggering statistics show, then, the ecological and climatic crises correspond to the extreme concentration of power and wealth produced by capitalism and upheld by the world's governments. As a counter-move to these realities, the political philosophy of anarchism - which opposes the rule of both state and capital - may hold a great deal of promise for ameliorating and perhaps even overturning these trends toward destruction. Apropos, I had the great good fortune recently to interview Professor Noam Chomsky, renowned anarcho-syndicalist, to discuss the question of ecological crisis and anarchism as a remedy. Click on the link below for a transcript of our conversation.
Read more: Noam Chomsky: Ecology, Ethics, Anarchism
As Nafeez Ahmed has shown, a recently published study funded in part by NASA warns of impending civilizational collapse without radical changes to address social inequality and overconsumption. Truthout's own Dahr Jamail has written a number of critical pieces lately that have documented the profundity of the current trajectory toward anthropogenic climate disruption (ACD) and global ecocide: In a telling metaphor, he likens the increasingly mad weather patterns brought about by ACD to an electrocardiogram of a "heart in defibrillation."
Rather than conclude that such distressing trends follow intrinsically from an "aggressive" and "sociopathic" human nature, reasonable observers should likely associate the outgrowth of these tendencies with the dominance of the capitalist system, for, as Oxfam noted in a January 2014 report, the richest 85 individuals in the world possess as much wealth as a whole half of humanity - the 3.5 billion poorest people - while just 90 corporations have been responsible for a full two-thirds of the carbon emissions generated since the onset of industrialism.
As these staggering statistics show, then, the ecological and climatic crises correspond to the extreme concentration of power and wealth produced by capitalism and upheld by the world's governments. As a counter-move to these realities, the political philosophy of anarchism - which opposes the rule of both state and capital - may hold a great deal of promise for ameliorating and perhaps even overturning these trends toward destruction. Apropos, I had the great good fortune recently to interview Professor Noam Chomsky, renowned anarcho-syndicalist, to discuss the question of ecological crisis and anarchism as a remedy. Click on the link below for a transcript of our conversation.
Read more: Noam Chomsky: Ecology, Ethics, Anarchism
7/3/12
Police raid Sarkozy’s office, home in campaign finance probe
 |
| Nicolas Sarkozy |
Magistrates are investigating claims that staff for Liliane Bettencourt, heiress to the L’Oreal cosmetics empire and France’s richest woman, gave envelopes stuffed with cash to Mr. Sarkozy's aides to finance his 2007 campaign.
Around ten police officers accompanied investigating magistrate Jean-Michel Gentil on the raid on his home and on offices he has recently rented in Paris, a source close to the enquiry said.
Mr. Sarkozy’s lawyer Thierry Herzog said that the president, who was defeated in his re-election bid in May by the Socialist Francois Hollande, is currently in Canada with his family.
Read more: Police raid Sarkozy’s office, home in campaign finance probe - The Globe and Mail
2/5/10
Morality: Is an affair a sackable offenc
We are living in liberal times; we are more tolerant of homosexuality, divorce and illegitimacy than ever before. Yet talking about sex even inside a good relationship is still difficult for many people. Meanwhile, fidelity has acquired a new importance. A Gallup poll in 2006 found that Americans were more tolerant of polygamy and human cloning than infidelity.
We no longer need to get married to have sex or children and many now enjoy a range of sexual experiences with different people before they "settle down", at which point being faithful to that special person is completely bound up with our feelings of love for them. Given how long we live and expect to be together, achieving this can be very difficult.
The only way a relationship can be made to work in these sex-obsessed times is with an understanding that we should never take each other for granted. Monogamy and fidelity cannot be expected from another person as a right. It is a gift offered from one mature human being to another because they care enough about their feelings not to want to hurt them. That's the deal most of us strike, and most of us do our level best to keep to it.
For more: Is an affair a sackable offence? | From the Guardian | The Guardian
We no longer need to get married to have sex or children and many now enjoy a range of sexual experiences with different people before they "settle down", at which point being faithful to that special person is completely bound up with our feelings of love for them. Given how long we live and expect to be together, achieving this can be very difficult.
The only way a relationship can be made to work in these sex-obsessed times is with an understanding that we should never take each other for granted. Monogamy and fidelity cannot be expected from another person as a right. It is a gift offered from one mature human being to another because they care enough about their feelings not to want to hurt them. That's the deal most of us strike, and most of us do our level best to keep to it.
For more: Is an affair a sackable offence? | From the Guardian | The Guardian
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