The 2012 book “What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets,” by Michael Sandel, Harvard Professor of government reminded me once again about the essential responsiblity communicators have to provide full context on important social issues.
My understanding of Sandel simply is that when financial market values dominate all other values, society is losing its moral compass. When money goes beyond buying a higher standard of living to buying political outcomes and virtually everything else, serious moral issues arise. Greed widens the distance between rich and poor, and eventually produces dangerous hostilities. When market economics trumps all other social values, everyone eventually suffers.
So what is the responsibility of journalists and communicators to provide context for possible social consequences such as this? Can this be accomplished without taking a political sides? I suggest that it can. I believe it’s not only possible to explain the various potential consequences of social and political trends with an observer’s detachment, but as professional communicators I believe making the good faith effort is our imperative.
Larry D. Lauer 
Absolutely. “Society is losing its moral compass.” This is dead on, and something I personally believe to be responsible for a ton of our current problems.
It used to be “do what’s right”, now it’s “what can I get?” Which fuels animosity, not harmony.