Task 1:

Based on the scenario below, identify and critically analyze some ethical issues that arise in each of the scenario. If you are in the situation, what will you do? Explain the reasons on decision you will made.

SCENARIO 13: The Washingtonienne Blogger

Jessica Cutler, a former staff assistant to U.S. Senator Michael DeWine (R-Ohio), authored an online diary (on blogger.com) under the pseudonym The Washingtonienne. In May 2004, she was fired when the contents of her diary appeared in Wonkette: The DC Gossip, a popular blog in the Washington D.C. area. Until her diary was discovered and published in Wonkette, Cutler assumed that it had been viewed by only a few of her fellow staffers (Washington D.C. staff assistants) who were interested in reading about the details of her romantic relationships and sexual encounters. In her diary, Cutler disclosed that she earned an annual salary of only $25,000 as a staffer and that most of her living expenses were thankfully subsidized by a few generous older gentlemen. She also described some details of her sexual relationships with these men, one of whom was married and an official in the George W. Bush administration. (Cutler did not use the real names of these men but instead referred to them via initials that could easily be linked to their actual identities.) Following her termination as a staffer, in response to the political fallout and the media attention resulting from the publication of her diary, Cutler was offered a book contract with a major publisher. She was also subsequently sued by one of the men implicated in her blog.3 &