Ch. 3 - Ethics and Social Responsibility

Ethics are the moral principles or values that generally govern the conduct of an individual or group.  In ESPN's case ethics is a huge issue for the fact that ESPN's sole job is to report sport news.  It's difficult for ESPN because the sport broadcasters rely on humor while analyzing a play or game.  Because ESPN has such a huge variety of followers it becomes difficult to abide by everyone's moral principles or values.  Many annoucers have been critized due to some of their comments, in some cases, ESPN's hand was forced to fire some annoucers because their comment "crossed the line" and violated people's morals.  Worse off for ESPN, prior to June 2011, the company had no Code of Ethics or Code of Conduct for their employees to follow.  This stranded their employees in a trial and error "danger zone" where they're forced to discover by error.  One such incident, in June 2008, and ESPN employee, Jemele Hill, publically made a comment about the NBA finals saying "Rooting for the Celtics is like calling Hitler a victim"  You can see the ethical dilemma there. 

It is common knowledge that a written Code of Ethics establishes a guidelines or set of rules to follow, which seems to be necassary to establish boundries for comments that can or can not be said over a global broadcasting network.  Guidelines suggested to ESPN after that specific incident were the following;

• Do not presume that what is ancient history to you is ancient history to the next person; the wound of World War II may be as fresh to others as 9/11 is to you.
• A good generalization is hard to find, especially when applied to cultures, races, genders and nations.
• Analogies are likely to be imperfect; extreme analogies are likely to be extremely imperfect.

To date, after countless hours of research, I still couldn't find any written Code of Conduct or Code of Ethics.  For a global empire such as ESPN to not have written guidelines is absurd!  Get with the program already ESPN!

Social responsibility is a businessman's concern for society's welfare.  Furthermore, the newest theory in social responsibility is sustainability, which is the idea that a social responsibile company will out perform their peers by focusing on the world's problems and viewing them as opportunities to build profits and help the world at the same time.  ESPN takes social responsibility to heart.  I don't need to state that ESPN makes their profit, and makes it well.  Because of their highly profitable success, it allows the company to focus more on the world's problem or current rave.  I believe we all can agree todays social ill is, Going Green!  ESPN as a company takes many steps to being green.  I'm going to paste from their website their position on sustainability and going green.

"It’s our fishing sanctuary, our local soccer pitch, our makeshift dirt bike track – but in the end, the Earth needs just as much attention as the things we enjoy in life. ESPN is proud to do its part to promote and resurrect a greener world. From our virtually waste-free, carbon neutral 2009 ESPY ceremony to our eco-friendly corporate offices, we put heart and soul into being environmentally responsible.
Here are just a few of our environmental initiatives:

• Compostable to-go containers, cutlery & napkins in cafeteria
• LEED compliance for all new construction & renovations
• Recycling of light bulbs, batteries, construction debris, and used cooking oil
• Donation or recycling of old office furniture   
• Reduced environmental impact & energy conservation at events
• Virtually waste-free 2008 ESPY Awards ceremony
• Virtually waste-free & carbon-neutral 2009 ESPY Awards ceremony
• Disney (parent company of ABC/ESPN) ranks #34 in Newsweek's Green Rankings of the S&P 500"

Here is a link to ESPN's social responsibility position:
Social Responsibility Outreach
and
Corporate Sustainability