Have we really reached the point where it's OK to leak an athlete's medical chart?

I figure the Giants released it, not JPP.

 

Not likely but wasn't it his right to decide that?

 

My guess is it came from JPP, through his agent. Why the anonymity then? Who the fuck knows? That's the culture of that league.

 

Why the need for the photo of the records?

Schefter doesn't tweet photos of the signed contracts every time he breaks a contract signing.

 

Kelly McBride, a media ethics expert at the Poynter Institute:

"Of course it's news" that a prominent NFL player lost a finger in a fireworks accident, she said. "But is posting medical records the best way to break that news? Even if you are operating super-fast, don't you serve your audience better by gathering a little more context?"

ESPN reporter tweets player's medical charts, and ethical questions erupt - Jul. 8, 2015

 

This is the part that bothers me. Do we really need to see the records? Isn't enough for Schefter to say he viewed them?

 

In ethical terms, what's the difference?

 

Well, it doesn't put all the info out there in such a personal way.

 

Sure it does.

The ethical violation is the leaking of the records. Once that's done, whether there's a picture of a typed piece of paper is a distinction without a difference.

 

I should add that eithically, it's probably not much different. But it just seems creepier to offer the info through something that is supposed to be private. Reporters get their hands on private documents all the time, but unless it's public record, they shouldn't put it out there like that.

 

What? Reporters shouldn't publish documents that aren't already public records?

 

Those prosecutions are INCREDIBLY rare. Less than 1 a year across the country since HIPAA was enacted and with all but one exception they have been limited to cases where the person used the information for financial gain. So unless the person who leaked JPP's info - assuming that they are even a covered entity, which is a huge assumption - would have had to been paid for the leak for the government to even seek a prosecution, based on DOJ's past decisions.