Question

Sailee Gaskins made herself infamous as a dishonest journalist by fabricating material for more than 40 articles for The Atlantic magazine and other publications. She also fabricated supporting materials to delude The Atlantic’s fact checkers. At the time, she was a law student at Stanford University. Once suspicions were aroused, Gaskins tried to avoid detection. Later, Gaskins applied for admission to the Nevada bar. The Nevada Supreme Court denied her application, citing "numerous instances of dishonesty and disingenuousness" during her "rehabilitation" following the exposure of her misdeeds. How do these circumstances underscore the importance of ethics?

Answer 1

In the case shown above, the journalist acted with a lack of ethics, forging information and lying about facts that would deceive her readers, in addition to providing false information to circulate in society. This lack of ethics caused her to lose her credibility and to lose any attempt to defend or lessen her punishment for her crimes.

The importance of ethics in this case can be seen from the lost credibility in the case. Without ethics, there is no trust, let alone defense of any case. In addition, the importance of ethics can be seen in the lack of commitment to the truth and the dissimulation of information.