Asking a noted ethicist to consider Coulter

What if the author of a New York Times Magazine columnist on ethics faced his own ethical dilemma related to aiding and abetting hate speech?  I may never know, but instead of going yakkity-yak all day, decided to take it "direct to the source and ask the horse."  For those with any interest I share my inquiry after the jump.  (I will update in the unlikely event I get a reply.)

Following is a letter I just dashed off to Randy Cohen, whose weekly column on ethics for NYTMag is carried by none other than UPS, the same folks who distribute Ann Coulter's column to America's newspapers.  The subject line read "Journalistic Ethics Hypothetical."

Dear Mr. Cohen,

As a noted ethicist, I would appreciate learning your take on the following set of circumstances:

The author of a politically-oriented column distributes it to some 100 newspapers nationally, exclusively through syndication, being employed by none of the papers directly.  Her product is intentionally incendiary in nature, and trades on controversy, often testing the limits of civil discourse.  She promotes her print work by television and public appearances, where she often uses much more vile language, creating a publicity buzz, which, of course, drives interest in and profits from her column for the syndicator and herself.  The syndicator is able to brush off criticism of hate speech and other antisocial behavior of the columnist since they do not, in fact, appear in the column itself.  This relationship and pattern of behavior has been publicly noted, and become somewhat of a scandal, drawing the attention not only of the popular press in general, but the publishing trade press in particular.

It would seem that such a relationship is facilitated by the other columnists whose works are distributed by the same syndicator, without whose work, in fact, the syndication company would cease to be a profitable enterprise.  Would a responsible writer, cartoonist, or other creative professional, have an ethical interest in the conduct of the agency which distributes his or her work, and if so, might this include any of the following courses of action:  (1) trying to influence the syndicate to rein in or drop the offensive contributor, and/or (2) terminating his or her own contract with the syndicate in favor of a more responsible outlet for his or her work?

A "real world" example of this phenomenon might well be found in Ann Coulter, whose column is distributed by United Press Syndicate, which I believe also carries your weekly column On Ethics.  I would be happy to provide you with quotes from Ms. Coulter's public appearances which can only be described as hate speech, and UPS's disavowals in response to complaints, and related materials, should you wish to peruse them in considering this matter.

Thank you for your attention to this inquiry.

s

I won't hold my breath.

J-M