Trumping Ethical Norms

Teachers, Preachers, Pollsters, and the Media Respond to Donald Trump

L. Sandy Maisel, Hannah E. Dineen

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780815359371
• eBook ISBN: 9781351120883
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Questions of ethics and politics have a long tradition in the classroom as well as the political world. Those who act in the political realm—including the media, political strategists and consultants, educators, and religious leaders—are in professions for which a clear code of conduct or an accepted set of ethical norms exists. By contrast, Donald J. Trump, as candidate and as President, has upended the political and ethical context in which he and others operate. This book explores emerging ethical questions that face professionals interacting with a new executive order. Some say the age of Trump is unique and that the norms of ethical professional behavior must be bent to meet this challenge. Others maintain that responding to someone like Trump is precisely why their profession has ethical norms, and that they must put their judgments on hold and respond in what has always been deemed the appropriate professional manner. Each chapter opens with an introduction setting the framework of ethical analysis for a particular profession, is followed by original contributions by notable practitioners, and concludes with a set of questions for students and other readers to ponder and discuss.

Contents

About the Contributors

Acknowledgments

First Thoughts

1 The Ethical Dilemma for the Mainstream Media

Introduction

The Mainstream Media’s Response to the Challenges of Donald Trump

CLARK HOYT, FORMERLY OF THE NEW YORK TIMES

The Role of the Mainstream Media in the Age of Trump

DAVID M. SHRIBMAN, PITTSBURGH POST- GAZETTE

Political Journalism and Analysis in an Age of Disruption

AMY WALTER, COOK POLITICAL REPORT

On the Front Lines of Journalism During The Trump Presidency

KENNETH T. WALSH, U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT

Questions for Discussion

Notes

2 The Ethical Dilemma for Political Consultants and Strategists

Introduction

Ethical Dilemmas for Political Consultants in the Age of Trump

WHIT AYRES, NORTH STAR OPINION RESEARCH

Polling for Democrats in an Evolving Political World

ANNA GREENBERG, GREENBERG QUINLAN ROSNER RESEARCH

Do You Want to Feel Good or Do You Want The Truth?

DARON R. SHAW, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS- AUSTIN; FOX NEWS POLL; TEXAS LYCEUM POLL; UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT- TEXAS TRIBUNE POLL

Questions for Discussion

Notes

3 The Ethical Dilemma for Professors

Introduction

Teaching american government in the age of trump

DAVID W. BRADY, STANFORD UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND THE HOOVER INSTITUTION

Teaching literature in the age of trump

AARON R. HANLON, COLBY COLLEGE

How do you talk about trump when you are one of the groups he targets?

PAULA D. MCCLAIN, DUKE UNIVERSITY, AND NURA A. SEDIQE, DUKE UNIVERSITY

Trump, trouble, and teaching

JOHN J. PITNEY, JR., CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE

Questions for discussion

Notes

4 The ethical dilemma for religious leaders

Introduction

Speaking out—and acting—in the age of trump

ERICA ASCH, TEMPLE BETH EL AND CENTER FOR SMALL TOWN JEWISH LIFE

Catholic priesthood in the era of trump

MICHAEL ROZIER, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

Two different religious traditions respond to the challenge of donald trump

CARL RUBY, CENTRAL CHRISTIAN CHURCH, AND YUNUS LASANIA, MASJID AL- MADINA AND MIAMI VALLEY ISLAMIC ASSOCIATION

Questions for discussion

Notes

Concluding Thoughts

Index

About the Contributors

Erica Asch received her rabbinic ordination in 2008 from Hebrew Union College—Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati. After three years of community organizing with the Industrial Areas Foundation, she served as an assistant rabbi at Temple Sinai in Washington, D.C., and then moved to Augusta, Maine, in June 2013. Rabbi Asch currently serves as the rabbi of Temple Beth El in Augusta, Assistant Director for the Center for Small Town Jewish Life, and Jewish Chaplain at Colby College. She is on the board of the Central Conference of American Rabbis.

Whit Ayres is the founder and President of North Star Opinion Research, a public opinion research firm located in Alexandria, Virginia. Ayres is a leading Washington, D.C. political consultant with over 30 years of experience in polling and survey research for high-profile political campaigns and associations. The American Association of Political Consultants selected him as the Pollster of the Year in 2012. Ayres published 2016 and Beyond: How Republicans Can Elect a President in the New America, in 2015.

David W. Brady holds the Bowen H. and Janice Arthur McCoy Professor of Political Science in the Stanford Graduate School of Business and is the Davies Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He has published seven books and more than 100 articles and chapters in journals and books, with topics ranging from the relationship between leadership and economic development to the causes of political polarization. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Hannah E. Dineen is a graduate of Colby College with majors in Government and English. Her senior independent study examined ethical constraints that exist in various professions. She is currently a producer at The Morning Report at WCSH-6, the NBC affiliate in Portland, Maine.

Anna Greenberg, Ph.D., is a partner in the polling firm of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research. Joining GQRR in 2001, she has over 15 years of experience polling in the political, non-profit and academic sectors. Previously she taught public opinion and survey research methodology at Harvard. She has been the lead pollster in many successful campaigns and won the “Pollster of the Year” award in 2014 from the AAPC for her work with Mayor Bill de Blasio’s campaign for mayor of New York City.

Aaron R. Hanlon is an assistant professor of English at Colby College. His areas of expertise are eighteenth-century British literature, transatlantic literatures c. 1600-1800, the novel, epistemology, enlightenment/science writing, and theories of exceptionalism. His book, The Politics of Quixotism, is forthcoming from University of Virginia Press. Hanlon has published essays about politics, literature, teaching, and higher education in nationally circulated publications.

Clark Hoyt is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist. He was a reporter, editor, Washington bureau chief and vice president of news during a 38-year career with Knight Ridder, then the nation’s second largest newspaper company. He served as the public editor of The New York Times, the “readers’ representative,” between 2007 and 2010 and later held various positions at Bloomberg News, including independent senior editor, or ombudsman.

Yunus Lasania has served as Imam at Masjid Al-Madina in Springfield, Ohio since 1990 and is active in interfaith outreach in Springfield and surrounding areas. He was born and raised in the United Kingdom and studied Islamic Theology at Darul Uloom, one of the most prestigious Islamic institutions. As part of his theological training, he has committed the entire Quran to memory.

Paula D. McClain is Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, Dean of the Graduate School, and Vice Provost for Graduate Education at Duke University. A Howard University Ph.D., her primary research interests are in racial minority group politics, particularly interminority political and social competition, and urban politics. She also co-authored “Can We All Get Along?” Racial and Ethnic Minorities in American Politics, now in its seventh edition, and American Government in Black and White, now in its third edition. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

L. Sandy Maisel is the Goldfarb Family Distinguished Professor of American Government at Colby College. From 2003-2012 he served as the founding director of the College’s Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement. He is the author or co-author, editor or co-editor of more than 20 books and has written scores of chapters and articles that have appeared in political science journals and books. He has taught a seminar on Ethics and Politics for the past 15 years.

John J. Pitney, Jr., is the Roy P. Brocker Professor of Politics at Claremont McKenna College. He has a vast array of political experience, and has worked with Republican officeholders at the state and national level, including Al D’Amato and Dick Cheney. Among his most recent works are The Politics of Autism, published in 2015, and Defying the Odds: the 2016 Elections and American Politics (co-author), published in 2017.

Michael Rozier, S.J., is a Jesuit priest and doctoral student in public health at the University of Michigan. Before being ordained in 2014, Father Rozier taught global health and public health ethics as he served as the founding director of Undergraduate Education at Saint Louis University School of Public Health. He studied theology at Boston College School of Theology and Ministry.

Carl Ruby is the Senior Pastor of Central Christian Church in Springfield, Ohio. Prior to serving as pastor, Dr. Ruby, who holds a Ph.D. in higher education, spent 30 years in higher education as Vice President of Student Affairs at an evangelical university. He is an active advocate on social justice issues including immigration reform, refugees, and payday loan reform.

Nura A. Sediqe is a doctoral student in political science at Duke University. She earned a Bachelor’s degree from the Honors College at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor; Master’s degree in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University; and graduate certificate in African and African American Studies from Duke University. Her research interests revolve around the racialization of new minority groups and examining the political behavior and identity patterns for Muslim Americans.

Daron R. Shaw is Distinguished Teaching Professor and Frank C. Erwin, Jr. Chair of State Government at the University of Texas at Austin. In addition to his position at UT, Shaw is a pollster and worked as a survey research analyst and targeting consultant in the presidential campaigns of 1992, 2000, and 2004. He is currently a member of the Fox News Decision Team, the National Election Study’s board of overseers, and the Annette Strauss Institute’s advisory board. Shaw is the co-director of the Fox News Poll, director of the Texas Lyceum Poll, and ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents