Ethics crashes

This author thoughtfully details what he describes as "Ethics Crashes on the Digital Media Highway."
What forces does he cite as problems that can lead to weak ethical practice? Do you agree? What examples can you think of to illustrate any of his points? Contradict any of those points?

Sources Beyond Google

Katy,
I thought you might share this with the students on the blog?
I went to the Midwest Journalism Conference in Minneapolis this weekend and Al Tompkins from the Poynter Institute gave a great seminar.
He posted his favorites sites(over 100) for Internet research from his "Beyond Google" seminar.
Everything from voting records to cell phone numbers.

http://atompkins711.googlepages.com/home

Is Anything Private

The Poynter Institute's e-media tidbits highlighted a problem I've been considering a lot lately: in the digital age, is any communication private anymore?
Poynter points to a recent case involving an e-mail exchange between a reporter and reader, which the latter then posted to her blog without informing the reporter or providing context.
Last spring, I spoke with an editor who was mortified when what appeared to be a private conversation about an ethical lapse ended up racing around some blogs like a forest fire (a reader rep had said in private that an incident was a "f***ing trainwreck" ... you can imagine how dismayed she was when her colleagues saw that characterization in print).
You can circulate what I say in lecture, copy and paste parts of my e-mails, visit me in office hours and blog about my comments, all largely without context. The Web has the power to convert private exchanges into public stories.
When everyone can be a publisher, is anything private? What does this mean for us as a society? Is it helpful, e.g. does it strip away layers of secrecy that cloak problems? Does it hurt us, e.g. make us less open to conversation and deliberation?