About the Links
The bane of ethical assessments these days, and perhaps always, is that
every criticism is attacked as evidence of bias and a hidden agenda, as
if you must be a Democrat to see any ethical transgressions by a Republican
official, you must be a racist to be critical of the ethics of the District
of Columbia Government, and you have proven yourself a homophobe if you
object to the City of San Francisco violating the principles of democracy.
To a great extent, this is a tactic of the unethical, of course: discredit
the integrity of your critics so that people will dismiss legitimate criticism.
On the other hand, it is an unavoidable fact that too many would-be ethical
arbiters tend to hold their fire when the transgressor is someone they approve
of, while using hyper-stringent standards in evaluating the ethical conduct
of adversaries. This tendency knocked several otherwise useful websites
off the list below.
While there is an identifiable ideological tone to several of the websites
that are listed, they manage to be substantially fair and have successfully
narrowed their stated purpose so that their usefulness is intact. For
example, Overlawyered is looking for examples of outrageous behavior by
lawyers, and reports them. Despite the fact that the site is run by individuals
who support legal reform, they provide accurate information and do not
distort the issues. As for the many sites that purport to document “media
dishonesty” or “political spin” and yet only manage to detect or object
to such conduct when it appears on one side of the political spectrum,
these are devoted to advocacy, not ethics; indeed, they are unethical
themselves in their misrepresentation. They are not to be trusted, and
when Ethics Scoreboard becomes aware of any such tendencies on a site
below, it will remove that site.
Links
- A Minor Consideration: Former child actor Paul Petersen (“The
Donna Reed Show”) is the pre-eminent advocate for the welfare of juvenile
performers past, present and future, and his non-profit organization
“A Minor Consideration” publicizes and battles abuses of children that
the public, the media and the law often ignore.
http"//www.minorcon.org
- Annenberg Political Fact
Check: Meticulously documents the misstatements, deceits, misleading
ads and lies embraced by both major parties’ presidential and vice-presidential
candidates as well as other advocacy groups, including the infamous
“527” groups. If there is a partisan slant to its efforts, I can’t detect
it, and the service it provides to citizens is incalculable.
http://www.factcheck.org
- Beliefnet: (religions, spirituality, prayer,
God, angels, politics, meditation…) : Thorough religion and ethics
resource.
http://www.beliefnet.com
- Bob Reno’s BadJocks.com: (Where COPS meets SPORTSCENTER): Entertaining
and exhaustive compendium of bad conduct among athletes at all levels
of sports
http://www.badjocks.com
- The Cheating Culture: Great source of data and news stories
on cheating and related cultural issues.
http://www.cheatingculture.com
- Editor and Publisher: You have to subscribe to use the archives,
but this useful site’s daily coverage of reporting and journalism issues
consistently tracks the Fourth Estate’s ethical dilemmas and misadventures
http://www.editorandpublisher.com
- Ethics Resource Center: Detailed and helpful business ethics
site, with special focus on leadership, global ethics, and character
education.
http://www.ethics.org
- The Ethical Spectacle: Generally left-leaning site, with an
assortment of articles and commentary
http://www.spectacle.org
- Ethics Daily: This is a Baptist church website with editorials
and essays on ethics in world events, U.S. society and popular culture.
Definitely ethics with theological overtones; thought-provoking and
well-done.
http//www.ethicsdaily.com
- Ethics Updates Home Page (moral theory; relativism; pluralism;
religion; egoism; utilitarianism; deontology; duty; human rights; anti-theory;
gender; race; multiculturalism; virtue; Aristotle; abortion; cloning;
euthanasia; punishment; death penalty; ethnicity; sexism; sexual orientation;
poverty; welfare; world hunger; animal rights; environmental ethics):
Excellent ethics literature resource site
http://ethics.acusd.edu
- Fairness.com: Fairness is a core ethical value, and this thorough,
professional and frequently updated site features news stories, surveys,
discussions and more related to public and private fairness.
http://www.fairness.com
-
Institute for Global Ethics: Commentary
,articles, research and resources on ethics
http://www.globalethics.org
- Josephson Institute of Ethics: Basic ethics resource site with
special emphasis on business and character education.
http://www.josephsoninstitute.org
-
Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa
Clara University: Well organized and provocative news and commentary
site
http://www.scu.edu/ethics/homepage.html
- Overlawyered: Anti-lawyer orientation, but well researched
with helpful observations on professional ethics
http://www.overlawyered.com
- Philo Sophos:A rarity, this site actually discusses philosophical
principles and issues in clear and readable prose. Provocative and wide
ranging articles and resources.
http://www.philosophos.com
- Planet Feedback
At a time when more and more companies appear to be promising services
thay can’t or won’t deliver, this excellent site not only allows consumers
to share their unsatisfactory (and satisfactory) experiences but also
provides a forum for prodding offending companies to honor their obligations.
http://www.planetfeedback.com/
- Poynter Online: The best journalism ethics page on the web.
Superb.
http://www.poynter.org
-
Procedural Ethics: (Chronological Site
Index) : For those who are philosophically inclined, and system oriented,
an excellent survey of ethical analytical systems
http://www.cs.bgsu.edu/maner/heuristics/toc.htm
- Reason: Libertarian magazine website, featuring frequent commentary
on ethics issue across disciplines, always well written and lively.
http://reason.com
- Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly | PBS: Useful and varied ethics
stories and resources from the PBS series
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics
-
Slate Magazine: On-line news and culture
magazine that covers ethics-related issues frequently and perceptively
http://slate.msn.com
-
Students For Academic Freedom: Conservative-leaning
site devoted to the elimination of ideological bullying and intellectual
repression on college campuses
http://www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org
- Zero Intelligence: This is a thorough, passionate, and well-written
site that documents "zero tolerance" policy injustices by
school officials around the nation.
http://www.zerointelligence.net