To air or not to air....

The death of Heath Ledger on January 22nd surprised Hollywood and its followers. Ledger was never in the spotlight for ever being an irresponsible celebrity. Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, for example, now have transformed their fame for Hollywood to focus on their partying and indictments. Ledger's fame never took this dark turn and rumors never spread about him in our entertainment media. Because of all of this, his death was a shock to his fans. The cause of his death is still not determined because an autopsy has not been conclusive yet; however, most are assuming that a drug overdose is responsible.

Entertainment Tonight this week, in hopes of improving ratings, purchased a video of Ledger at a party. The video shows drugs on the table while Ledger rolls a piece of cigarette paper. At one point in the video, Ledger addresses the camera and says that for the past 20 years he has been an excessive drug user. Obviously this would be a very controversial video, as it would put the beloved, late actor is a very bad light. Entertainment Tonight showed previews of the video this week to advertise that they would play the video later in the week. This raises a huge ethical problem in journalism, although entertainment news seems to follow different standards. If you have incriminating information, do you release it, even when feeling the pressure not to? Is it necessary for the public to know the information you have at the expense of Ledger's memory and his family? Because he is deceased does that change the rules? And also, because the autopsy results are not yet conclusive, is it fair to release the video before those results are released?

All of these questions pose ethical dilemmas that journalists, even in entertainment news, have to think about. Because of these issues, Entertainment Tonight has chosen not to air the video although they advertised that they would. Somewhere along the road in their ethical process, they decided that out of respect for his family they would not air the video. That is a very respectable decision considering the amount of money they spent on the video must have the set the company back a little bit and it also shows respect for the deceased and his grieving family. I am impressed by the entertainment news for this decision, as they are sacrificing their ratings and money, and also because entertainment news falls under pressure to usually stir up as much controversy as possible.

To read more go to: CNN.com