Deception

Definition and Conditions

Deception occurs when someone intentionally acts, or refrains from acting, with the intention to lead one or more persons to form or maintain a false belief. Deception is an ethically questionable act, which means that if there is not adequate justification, the act is ethically prohibited.

The first step to analyzing deception is conceptualization. It is necessary to determine if an act counts as deception before determining if the deception is justified or not.

Necessary Condition No. 1: Intent. Intention is required for any act to be deceptive. When one has uttered a false statement without intention, the normative judgment is that the person is mistaken. On the other hand, to say that a badly placed sign “deceived me” is to speak metaphorically. I was led to a false conclusion, but it is likely that no one has acted with an intention to deceive. As intention is required, journalists act deceptively even if they are unsuccessful in their attempts. For example, when a reporter lets others assume that he is a police investigator at a crime scene to get access to a meeting that is open only to law enforcement, he has acted deceptively even if someone recognizes him as a journalist and escorts him out of the room.

Sufficient Condition No. 1: Uttered falsehood or the nonverbal equivalent. When someone makes a false statement with the intention of leading one or more other persons to form or maintain a false belief, she has acted deceptively. When a journalist tells a real estate agent that she wants to buy a home when the intent is really to see if a neighborhood is redlined to limit racial integration, the journalist has acted deceptively. There are also nonverbal equivalents of lying. For example, when the journalist presents herself through dress or circumstance in a way to make others believe that she is a doctor or a law enforcement officer instead of a journalist working on a story, she has acted deceptively.

Sufficient Condition No. 2: Withholding information under certain conditions. When a person withholds information with the intention of leading one or more persons to form or maintain a false belief and, in the process of withholding, breaks a law, breaks a promise, cheats, or neglects a duty, the withholding of information is deceptive. If a reporter who has been subpoenaed fails to disclose [Page 390]all that he knows under oath, he has acted deceptively by breaking a law. If a reporter promises to tell a source if she will reveal the source's name, and then fails to tell the source when she has, the reporter has acted deceptively by breaking a promise. If a columnist goes to a party with the intention of developing information for a story and does not tell those from whom he is gathering quotes that they are on the record, the columnist has deceived by cheating. In this case, the journalist has failed to meet reasonable expectations that people have at a party, that is, that those attending are “off duty” and not collecting information for a column. Journalists can also act deceptively by withholding information that they have a duty to tell. The duty, or role-related responsibility of journalists, is to tell citizens information that is needed for self-governance. Citizens need to trust that news reflects journalists' independent determination that the material serves the public interest rather than special interest. When, instead, news organizations present material to serve a politician's or advertiser's agenda, they have acted deceptively toward their audience members. The news organization, in this case, has acted deceptively by failing to do their duty.

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