Panelists gathered for the ethics summit to discuss race, gender, and journalism in politics. On the panel were Jesse Holland, Calvin White, jr, director of African American studies, and Lisa Corrigan, director of gender studies.

I thought that it was interesting when they talked about the mediator for the presidential debates (Lester Holt) and how they said that he did not do as good of a job as he should have. This was honestly one of the first presidential debates that I have watched and paid attention to so I thought that the way he was acting was normal. Looking back I now see why the speakers felt the way they did. He should have controlled the conversation more and should not have been so intimated by Trump. I understand that he wanted to let each candidate speak but once Trump started rambling it started going downhill. Was this done on purpose for good television?

I also thought that the speakers spent a little too much time talking about the controversy surrounding President Obama’s birth certificate. Clearly it was proven that he was born in the United States and Trump kept bringing it up to try to gain an advantage in voters.

I really wish they would have discussed sexism more. They talked about how Hillary Clinton is continuously judged on her appearance while also being compared to her counter male opponents. Mansplaining, when a man talks over a woman, was only briefly discussed. I feel that this is an important topic because not only was Trump interrupting Clinton, but Holt was as well. If the mediator interrupts one candidate than he should interrupt the other as well. Dr. White said “This presidential election is now making issues that are not important the main issues”, I completely agree with that statement.

It was interesting that Jesse Holland and Dr. Lisa Corrigan had completely different views on persuasive journalism. Dr. Corrigan believes that it is a journalist’s job to be able to persuade the reader. Holland stated that “Journalist/Reporters should not be advocates”. I agree more with Holland because in order to write a fair and ethical story you need to be as unbiased as possible.

The biggest lesson I took from this was to “know your craft”. I didn’t realize how important it was to be aware of historical context. It can help the journalist ask better questions and be more knowledgeable about the topic.
My favorite quote comes from Jesse Holland. He spoke about having to meet and interview the leader of the KKK, and afterwards the leader said “I don’t like a thing that you wrote, but I can’t argue that it was all true”.