Moral reasoning based on deontology frames much of the debate in the scholarly literature and the journalism texts about ethics in journalism. Yet when the ethics of journalists and editors are called into question, a variety of forms of moral reasoning seem to appear. This article is a case study of the various forms of moral reasoning that were applied in the public debate which followed publication on May 8, 2002, in The Australian newspaper, of a full colour, front page photograph of assassinated Dutch politician Pym Fortuyn lying dead and uncovered at the crime scene with the accompanying headline: Death of a gay, anti-Muslim maverick. Specifically, this article canvasses the relationship between taste and ethics, the limits of deontological arguments and codes, and the use of casuistry by the newspaper's editor in defending publication of the photograph
