GOODY TWO SHOES: MSM Lax When It Comes To Disclosure And Exposure Of Their Own Conflicts Of Interest
Alternative paper The Boston Phoenix examines why some journalistic conflicts-of-interest become scandals and others do not - and explains why it's important for the media to be above reproach in this regard:
[S]some conflicts of interest are routinely acknowledged by news organizations and individual journalists. The Boston Globe has finally figured out that it should always mention that its corporate parent, the New York Times Company, owns part of the Boston Red Sox, for example. And Slate media critic Jack Shafer regularly notes that he’s a Washington Post Company employee (and anything else that strikes him as potentially problematic). Furthermore, mismanaging a conflict can still cost a journalist his or her job: witness former Globe reporter Tania deLuzuriaga, who left that paper after it was revealed that she had an affair with new Miami-Dade school superintendent Alberto Carvalho (then a school administrator) in Florida while at the Miami Herald — and wrote painfully compromising e-mails about it.
There’s also an obvious motive for keeping quiet when a thorny conflict looms. After all, the press’s commercial success is predicated on the idea that we’re credible purveyors of information. Acknowledge too many potential conflicts of interest, mention them too frequently, or explore them too deeply, and we risk undermining that basic premise.
Problem is, the current approach is even worse. When potential conflicts aren’t disclosed voluntarily — or when they’re justified with reasoning that wouldn’t pass muster in a freshman journalism class — the public gets a double message: we (the media) aren’t as hard on ourselves as we are on everybody else; and we don’t trust you (the public) to draw responsible conclusions about subjectivity and objectivity.
The Stiletto has wondered why some journalists get away with this sort of ethical lapse, as when media watchdogs and the Wall Street Journal's own internal ethics monitor, Alix Freedman, could not hear the repeated toots from the whistle she was blowing on James Taranto's long history of using his position as an editor of OpinionJournal to publish articles written by women with whom he currently or formerly had sexual relations without the necessary disclosures alerting readers to the conflct of interest.
All The Stiletto got for her trouble was a threatening letter from since-canned Wall Street Journal General Counsel Stuart Karle meant to scare her into ceasing-and-desisting from writing future posts on the subject. She heard nothing more on the matter from Karle after providing several examples of Taranto publishing or promoting articles by girlfriend Heather Robinson, a talentless, lightly employed freelance writer who lives off her deceased father's considerable bequest.
In case you don't know what such disclosures of personal relationships look like - and you wouldn't from reading OpinionJournal - here are a few The Stiletto has collected:
† Lipsky is married to Amity Shlaes, a columnist for Bloomberg News, which is owned by Bloomberg LP. (From "New York Sun Runs Out of Money, Publishes Final Issue," Bloomberg.com, September 30, 2008)
† Disclosure: I know practically everybody I wrote about in this column. (From Jack Shafer's article, "Wall to Wall to Wal-Mart Political Coverage," Slate, February 5, 2008)
† Full disclosure: My wife recently took a job as an aide to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), one of the judicial deal’s architects. Marriages that span the divide between the media and politics are common in Washington. They require both parties to draw a firm line between their personal attachments and professional responsibilities. I do not intend to treat McCain any differently as a result of my marriage, and my wife does not expect favored treatment for her boss. I certainly don’t expect any special treatment from McCain or his aides. Readers, of course, will have to make their own judgments, but I am confident that her new job will not affect my judgments, pro and con, about McCain and his initiatives. (From Ronald Brownstein’s column, "On Filibuster and Stem Cells, GOP Bears Pain of Compromise," Los Angeles Times, May 30. 2005)
The Phoenix concludes that some conflicts stay under the radar because "the press still ignores or minimizes potential conflicts of interest far more often than it should - especially those involving high-stakes stories and high-profile journalists." Meaning if self-appointed media watchdogs aren't inclined to spotlight conflicts involving the profession's superstars, a relatively obscure blogger like Taranto can get away with murder because he is beneath notice.
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