The consequences from hitting a land mine can be profound. I believe there is a direct and significant connection between the legal and ethical issues involved in using hidden cameras and microphones. While jurors are instructed to make decisions based on the application of law, it is not unreasonable to expect that these jurors, human beings all, turn in some way to their impressions about the ethics of the journalists. The legal issues of fraud speak to the ethical principle of honesty. Intentional infliction of emotional distress is the legal cousin of an ethical failure to show compassion.
Harm is about legal liability and it is about ethical responsibility.
Jurors may be casting ballots about fraud, intrusion and trespass. I don't believe that jurors in a courtroom or viewers in their living room would always turn a thumbs down on journalists using hidden cameras or microphones. But what is offensive to many is irresponsible and unprofessional use of this powerful tool. The public should object when hidden camera footage is used inappropriately in stories creating a tone of wrongdoing that is out of proportion and out of context to fact. It is that objection, rooted in concerns of fairness or the lack thereof, that underpins a public distrust of the news media.