We need a whole new set of ethics for reporters ...

This came in via Secret Squirrel over the weekend.

Ryan Dean of Channel 5 invaded a Facebook tribute page created by St. Louis University High students grieving over the loss of two students. Not sure there is anything more tasteless, but figured you would know the answer. Another low by a once proud television station. Here is his clip:

Ryan Dean (UMiami) wrote at 16:29 yesterday:
Hi all. I am a reporter with Channel 5.
We are reporting on this story. Help our viewers know the kind of people Brendan and Jake were. Please contact me with any information you can provide.
Thanks, Ryan Dean NewsChannel 5. 314-330-6034

A few things to start the discussion:

1. We've seen this before, and most who wrote about it found this behavior to be thoroughly reprehensible. I agree. A reporter getting in the grill of a grieving parent or friend is patently unacceptable behavior; doing it this way may be different but no less offensive.
2. On the other hand, the Facebook page was placed in the public domain, not private. Does that make it fair game for this sort of thing?
3. What could a reporter hope to find out about the students that would add to the story?
4. Note where he indicates his college affiliation. Is that supposed to make his presence at the mourning more acceptable because he's young and hip and went to a school where basketweaving is a major?

I'm demonstratably not a Luddite, but I wonder if the basic functions of journalism are being subverted by the ease of New Media communication.

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