Journalist Marc Lourdes uses the St. Louis Post-Dispatch platform blog to ask people outside the media what they think about the ethics of undercover reporting (9/06/09). When Lourdes arrived in the US from Malaysia he was surprised to discover that many American journalists consider such reporting unethical. He now asks a wider audience:
“Do you, dear reader, think that the disadvantages of reporters going undercover outweigh the benefits? Do you think that the loss of privacy outweighs the potential good that might arise from this? Or do you feel that the only people who have to be afraid of undercover reporters snooping around are people who have something to hide? I’m dying to know.”