ACORN

I think that it was good that they busted them for abusing the system, but they should have taken a different approach to it. People should know when they are going to be video taped. One reason is in most states it is illegal to video tape people without having their permission. If they would have asked permission to video tape these people falsely recording their occupations, they would have denied. You can also look at it from both stand points. One point being that what some people at ACORN did was illegal. Since what they did was illegal we should not have a problem debating on whether or not hidden cameras were ethical.
Aristotle would have thought that hidden cameras were not the way to go about this. He believed that being a moral person involves not just knowing what is right but choosing it as well. The leaders in the hidden camera investigation knew that setting up those cameras was not the most moral thing to do, but they still did it anyway. He would also think that the violators at ACORN should take responsibility for their voluntary actions which involve others. Kant would ask them how they would feel if they were to be lied to. It would kind of fall under the rule of karma. If people are doing illegal activities, justice will be served and they will be caught. If you take the chance to cheat people out of their money by telling lies about your occupation, you must have to pay the consequences. They should have thought about how they would feel if somebody tried to cheat them out of their money. Since Utilitarianism focuses on the relationship between morality and the law, they would have thought that it was wrong on both sides. One side being what some people did at ACORN was illegal. The other side being that putting up hidden cameras is not moral.