The Ethics Guy

I am pleased to introduce a new feature of this blog: “Five Questions for....”  I’m asking a wide range of people the same five questions about ethics, and I’ll post their answers here with little or no editing. 

For this inaugural edition of “Five Questions for....,” I'm delighted to present the perspective of Ms. Rosanna Scotto, co-host of Good Day New York on WNYW/ Fox 5.  

Scotto has won three Emmys for anchoring Fox 5 News at 10 p.m. and Good Day New York. She has received a host of honors and awards for her community service work and is a graduate of Catholic University with a Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts. Born and raised in Brooklyn, Scotto lives in the New York area with her husband and their two children.

FIVE QUESTIONS FOR ROSANNA SCOTTO
1.   If you could summarize your code of ethics in a single sentence or phrase, what would it be?
I think George Orwell had it right when he said, " On the whole, human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time."

2.    Tell a story in which you chose to the right thing in the face of great pressure to do otherwise.
As a working mother, there is always pressure to balance the job with family life. There have been plenty of assignments I turned down to make my daughter's class trip or my son's basketball game. As a mother I was extremely happy to be there, but as a journalist, I sometimes wonder, "Did I pass on the big one.?"  Friends remind me that when we look back we will never say "Geeze, I should have worked harder or longer hours," but we will regret not spending more time with our family. That is my priority.

3.  What book, movie, or piece of music has influenced how you treat other people, and how did it do this?
The book, Sophie's Choice by William Styron, really drove home how we all live with the consequences of our decisions. In the book, Sophie had a horrible dilemma in choosing which one of her two children should be gassed. While that choice is dramatic and thankfully not in my world, we all have to make choices that leave lasting impressions. I try not to make a decision based on what will make me happy for the moment.

4.  What is one of the things that bothers you the most about our society today, and what are you doing to address the problem?
Some people are in such a rush, or feel they are so superior that they don't have to say please or thank you. I go out of my way to polite.

5.   Why should we be ethical?
We need to be ethical to avoid living in hell.