Don’t be deceived – a lie is a lie

We often make ethics a lot harder than they need to be. We’re awash in ethical consultants, advisers and reams of books and articles that purport to solve every ethical problem under the sun. Case studies, ethical theories and codes of conduct describe, prescribe and proscribe.

In 2003, when I taught a media ethics class at Davidson College in North Carolina, I contended one simple sacrosanct philosophy would prevent most media ethical problems: Do Not Deceive.

That means do not lie, do not cheat, do not make things up, do not hide your actions to avoid consequences, do not trick, do not purport to be something you are not, do not falsify information, do not misrepresent, do not keep two sets of books, and do not mislead. It means do not deceive.

It’s stunning how many ethical scandals would be avoided if that foundational principle was always followed.

The football coach for a heartbeat at Notre Dame three years ago, who was forced to resign because he padded his resume, would have been scandal-free had he not tried to deceive. Every college student and every job applicant must know their resume should be a truthful presentation of themselves.

Enron executives would not be facing years of litigation if greed had not caused them to cook their books to pump up the price of their stock. The same can be said for countless other companies like Adelphia, WorldCom and whatever company made fraud headlines in your town last year.

The settlements several big brokerage houses had to pay resulted from their desire to cozy up to big companies while deceiving their retail investors. Their piggybanks and their integrity could have stayed intact if someone would have shouted “We’re deceiving our customers here!”

The embarrassing Jayson Blair case at the New York Times is a direct result of Blair’s attempt to build his reputation on made-up facts and stolen stories. None of the embarrassing plagiarism cases of the last few years would have occurred if people remembered they must not deceive.

Even the recent CBS news scandal is, at root, a product of deception. The news source deceived the network and now an investigative report contends the producer deceived executives about what checks on accuracy had actually been made.

Deception tries to enter my home practically every night in the form of telephone solicitations. The callers tell me I signed up online for some scheme or another, or they insist they are not trying to sell me anything. Some people call these things “tricks of the selling trade.” I call them deception, and it’s wrong.

When I was in the newspaper business some advertisers preferred to disguise their advertisements as news copy. Well-intentioned standards guardians wanted to devise a complicated set of rules to prevent such trickery. I proposed a far simpler standard: Do not deceive! If the ad looked like it was attempting to trick readers, it could not run.

We can all behave more ethically in the workplace if we adopt and fiercely abide by this simple admonition: Do not deceive. And if there’s any question about what constitutes deception there are two good tests. Will you be comfortable if your action is on the front page of the local newspaper? Even better, test your willingness to tell your mother what you’re doing. If you can’t tell mom, don’t do it!

Tip for your search: Do you ever find yourself telling “white lies?” Lies have no color. They are all lies. If you don’t fudge the little stuff you are a lot less likely to deceive on the big stuff.

Resource for your search: “The Moral Advantage: How to Succeed in Business by Doing the Right Thing” by William Damon (Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc., 2004)