Frontline Story

1. When referring to the allegation that Mayor Jim West was pursuing underage boys online, why do you think editor Steven Smith differentiated between a legitimate news story and one that is not legitimate when he said, "If he's [Mayor Jim West] engaged in this activity … we need to know that. If he's not -- there's no story" ?
It has to do with ethics, Smith needed to know what had actually happened and apparantly by creating a fake identity and having one person with a non believable story was enough to cover the issue and take down the mayor in a cruel way.
2. How did reporter Bill Morlin justify the use of a concealed identity on Gay.com as part of The Spokesman-Review's and the FBI's "sting operation"? Why didn't Morlin himself create the assumed identity to engage Mayor West online?
Morlin’s code of ethics kept him from pretending to be someone he wasn’t. It is legal, however, to hire consultants. The purpose for their investigation was to supposedly search for the truth.
3. Why do you think The Spokesman-Review ultimately published so many articles on Mayor West's alleged improprieties?
Because it was human interest and they feel like people need to know. For such a small town, it was obvious that with not much else going on that this would be the big story and would sell a lot of papers. Also, the town is conservative and this is a story that people want to know about, if no other reason than to just scorn the mayor for his closeted homosexuality.
4. In the final analysis, who benefited from The Spokesman-Review's decision to expose Mayor West and his alleged improprieties? Who was hurt? Do you think the outcome was worth it? Explain your reasoning.
I definitely do not think it was worth it. It seems to me to be completely unethical and discriminatory toward gays. There was no evidence that he had molested boys in the 1970s. There is no evidence the he was seeking sexual favors from children. Mayor West was hurt and his sexual orientation is no one else’s business. No one came forward and said that West abused them, except for one person whose story was skeptical. He was battling for his life. Although I understand why it was reported, I do not agree with it by any means and consider certain aspects of it to be completely unethical.
5. The Spokesman-Review has been criticized as conducting a "witch hunt" in its reporting on the private lives of some city officials. Below is a link to another recent article on Spokane Deputy Mayor Jack Lynch. Do you think that there are any ethical problems in the reporting in this story? Why or why not?
I think that the Spokesman-Review tried to pry into the lives of city officials because there is nothing else to do. Private lives should be kept private and I think that the newspaper is blurring the lines of codes of ethics and personal matters. I think that by trying to figure out if Lynch was at the park or not is completely ridiculous and not necessary to report on. Who cares why he wants to have a leave of absence? It is his own right to do so and no indications should be provided on what he could be doing or what his sexual orientation is.