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Ethical Issues In Quiz Show

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Robert Redford directed the 1994 movie, Quiz Show; it chronicled the scandal of the 1950s quiz show, Twenty-One and the rise and fall of its most popular contestants and producers. The movie demonstrated the great lengths people would go for fame and fortune. I selected this movie because of the ethical dilemma of cheating and how the whole country was deceived by the game show.
Quiz Show:

Quiz Show is set in 1958 and chronicles the real-life scandal of the popular game show, Twenty-One. The film is about contestants Herbert Stempel, the Jewish know-it-all from Queens, NY, and Charles Van Doren, a Colombia professor and son of a prominent literary family, who get caught in the middle of fame, fortune, and a rigged game …show more content…

Cheating is morally wrong and the characters cheat to gain fame and fortune. According to dictionary.com, cheating is defined as, “to practice fraud, to deceive, to elude” (Dictionary, 2016). The movie shows Charles and Herbert working with the network to deceive the American people. They eventually have to confess to the cheating and deal with the consequences of their action. During the course of the movie, Van Doren realizes the mistake he has made and confesses to cheating. Since Van Doren confesses to an activity that is perceived as morally wrong, he is fired from his job, has to live with being a cheater, and others started to view him differently. I believe in our society that cheating will never stop. People cheat every day. People cheat on tests, on relationships, and cheat themselves. It is common to say that you have cheated, even though it is frowned upon. Individuals will take a chance and cheat and feel relieved that they did not get caught. Cheating is an easy and common way to do an action that is morally …show more content…

According to the text, The Moral of The Story, authenticity is stated as, “being true to yourself, having personal integrity” (Rosenstand, 2013). The characters knew they were doing something wrong, and therefore had no personal integrity and were not being true. Being true to yourself is being trustworthy and living up to your actions and these characteristics are not displayed in the movie. I feel that people in our culture struggle with personal authenticity. People change themselves to please others and will do anything to become more successful, much like the movie

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