Can A Business Act Courageously?

[theBruiser500]

I'm reading "Secrets: A Memoir Of Vietnam And The Pentagon Papers" now by Daniel Ellsberg, 4 1/2 stars, recommend it. In it Ellsberg says the NYTimes maybe he says other newspapers acted courageously, in printing the Pentagon Papers because of the risk to them. Then when NYTimes started printing it the Justice Department got an injunction against them to stop printing it and then other newspapers took over and started printing other parts of the Pentagon Papers anyway.

Anyway, Ellsberg says this was courageous. Just seems like self interest to me. With all the controversy and risk, everyone in the country was interested in reading about it. Three big telvision networks ABC, CBS and NBC declined to put the actual Pentagon Papers on air because of the risks. So, what do you think about this and in general, can a business act courageous or is it all self interest?

[Bez]

Self interest. The conroversy would guarantee a large audience. The media is only ever bothered about increasing it's audience.

[tylerdurden]

[ QUOTE ]
Anyway, Ellsberg says this was courageous. Just seems like self interest to me. With all the controversy and risk, everyone in the country was interested in reading about it. Three big telvision networks ABC, CBS and NBC declined to put the actual Pentagon Papers on air because of the risks. So, what do you think about this and in general, can a business act courageous or is it all self interest?

[/ QUOTE ]

Printing something politically unpopular is a relatively minor risk in the US, despite what journalists would like you to believe. More traditional businesses take much larger risks every day - that's how they make money. The risks they take could potentially drive the entire business into bankruptcy and destroy thousands of jobs.