They acquired a bar in Chicago and it was managed by an army of journalists who worked in the bar undercover. They installed cameras, micro phones to tap the conversation and the activities that took place there. The bar was in shambles and the placing was falling apart. But the city officials turned a deaf ear to their complaints because they obviously wanted money for themselves. The Public department works did not pay heed to their complaints also. Corruption was at its worst.

After a couple of years and some hard hitting reporting, Chicago Sun-Times blew the cover and published this article in their newspaper. This created uproar in journalism circles as to whether it was ethical of them to do so.

The popular adage "The end justifies the means" is probably how "operation mirage" can be best described as. The art of reporting news and informing the public has obviously come a way long way as compared to the traditional and the old ways. We are now in an era where people have no qualms whatsoever when it comes to another individual's feelings or emotions.

"Competition", "one-up man ship", "a-cut-above-the-rest" attitude are probably some of the factors which prompted the Chicago Sun-Times to do what they did. It is pretty evident from this episode that a newspaper will go to any length in order to get their story. It boggles the mind to know that Sun-Times actually masterminded the whole plan and executed it in a very professional way. They should be given credit for this.

Ethics is a very relative concept and is not universal in nature. What constitutes ethics for one individual may be entirely different for another person. Hence, it becomes difficult to take a stand on ethical issues. Personally, I did not think that the Sun-Times compromised themselves in any way or did anything which was "ethically wrong". It was a quid pro quo situation. They succeeded in giving their readers something that probably no other newspaper ever did.

The rationale behind "operation mirage" seems pretty straightforward and simple in its truest form. The Sun-Times wanted to a thrilling expose` on Chicago's "current generation of the worst and the lowest…." And so they chose a slightly different method to do it, giving a new meaning to the term "investigative journalism".

For a long time now, journalists have misrepresented themselves and often been scorned by the public. Misrepresentation reduces a journalist's credibility. Not only credibility suffers but also they have to face the wrath of their readers.

But then if everything boils down to "end justifying the means" which journalist would actually care?