1. Honor to Die
For
Newsweek and the
Admiral Boorda Case

2. Story goes…
 On May 16, 1996 Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Jeremy
M. (Mike) Boorda, committed suicide hours before a
scheduled interview with Newsweek.
 Why?
 Newsweek was pursuing an investigation involving honors that
Boorda wore on his uniform, called “v” clips, a year after he
removed them.
 What are those?
 “v” clips are awarded for valor under fire to combat soldiers.
 Why a big deal?
 Admiral Boorda had been awarded two medals, the Navy’s
Achievement Medal and the Navy Commendation Medal, but
neither of them specified he deserved the awards.

3. V is for Valor
Navy Achievement Medal

4. More story…
 Admiral Boorda had served in Vietnam aboard
two Naval ships in the South China Sea and while
they were in a combat situation, nothing proves
they were fired upon.
 A year before the investigation and interview
were to be conducted, National Security News
Service requested documents proving he was
awarded the pins. He quit wearing them.

5. Here’s the issue…
 Ethical Dilemma
 Should Newsweek and National
Security News Service continued
their investigation a year AFTER he
quit wearing them?
 Eh, probably not.

6. W.W.E.T.D.?
 Aristotle:
 The Golden Mean means taking the middle road on two
extremes.
 One extreme- pursuing the story without a forewarning to
Boorda until he killed himself (reality)
 Other extreme- not pursuing the story at all, which isn’t very
characteristic of a journalist.
 Aristotle’s take: Newsweek could have written the story
but given Boorda a notice of what the interview was over
in advance notifying him he’d have a chance to explain
his previous actions.
 Now, the outcome could have been the same but if there
could have been less of a possibility of Newsweek being to
blame for Boorda’s death.

7. “Kant” let this story go...
 Immanuel Kant:
 Don’t use people as an ends to a mean.
 Newsweek wanted a juicy story and at a time with the
Navy was in the lime light for bad behavior what better
than the CNO wearing pins he didn’t deserve? They
wanted to use Boorda as their subject to get the goods
for their news story.
 How to be like Kant:
 Kant would not have used Boorda’s ill decision to get a
good story because it would be using a person as an ends
to a mean.

8. Who cares?
 Gilligan:
 Carol Gilligan’s Ethics of Care values of
interdependence, community, connection,
sharing, trust.
 Newsweek didn’t care about the Navy as a
community and how this would affect it. Nor did
they care about the connection Newsweek
would have after the fact. The trust in the media
was tarnished a bit because people blamed the
media for Boorda’s death.

9. Checklist
 John Stuart Mill:
 Consider all possible actions
 The potential situations could have been Boorda
cooperated, explained, and they got their story.
 bad publicity for the four star Admiral and the
Navy
 gained respect for telling the truth about a matter
of the past
 actual outcome and Boorda reacted negatively
and the story died when he did

10. Weighing the options
 Those investigating could have also weighed the
options of all those affected by the story going
public.
 Did it affect anyone that he wore the wrong pins in
the past?
 Was it really important?
 Could humiliating the Admiral by calling him out
be justified by doing good for the greater masses
and what benefit would the public gain?

11. Technically…
 Admiral Boorda was in the wrong but, it seems it
would have only affected everyone involved
negatively; therefore the story should not have
been a focus of the reporters.

12. My decision
 Using Kant’s theory, not using a person as an
ends to a mean, I would find the story a good
one to actively chase if Boorda had not
removed the pins from his medals because it
would be a blatant disregard to everything he
supposedly stood for as four-star admiral and
Chief of Naval Operations. However, because
Boorda had removed the pins I would find the
story to be a dead end, not being informational
or entertaining.

13. Alternate
 Questioned the C.N.O. on his past actions
regarding his combat decorations.
 I’d contact Admiral Zumwalt, if possible, due to
the fact he was the active C.N.O. at the time of
Boorda’s service in Vietnam. He would be the
one to say if he did or didn’t deserve the pins.
 I’d research the exact criteria for the award and
if he met the criteria then approach it in a way
that made it look like my writing was to benefit
him so he could get proper permission to wear
the medals and deserve them.

14. In the end
 Ironically, in the years after Boorda’s death, it
was determined he did deserve the “v” clips he
was wearing and a letter was put in his file to
verify it.