Journalists: Please Remember Ethics

By Chris Roush
Jan. 22, 2008

Back in graduate school in the late 1980s, I wrote my master's thesis about the Miami Herald's stakeout of Gary Hart's Washington townhouse in 1987 when he was running for president. The Herald's story led to Hart's withdrawal from the campaign. I compared the reporting practices to statements in journalism ethics codes.

The only problem was that some of the tactics the reporters used back then had no applicable statement in the ethics codes of that day. The end of the thesis argued that journalism codes should be strengthened to take into consideration more everyday reporting tactics and situations.

Two recent incidents in business journalism show that these ethics codes still need some work.

A business journalist recently e-mailed and wanted to know what the Society of American Business Editors and Writers code of ethics said about reporters and editors joining company boards. He knew of an instance where a business journalist had been named to a board seat.

I replied that nothing specifically banned them from such a position, but that I thought the situation had two major issues: 1. It would call into question everything that journalist reported in the future, even if it had nothing to do with the company, and; 2. It would call into question everything that the media outlet reported about that company in the future, even if it pulled the reporter off writing about that company.

To his credit, the business journalist in question resigned the board seat a day after he was appointed when his media outlet became aware of the situation. But shouldn't some alarm bells have gone off when he was asked to be on the board?

The second incident involved a wire service reporter who quoted an analyst from a research report. That sounds like standard, every-day business journalist practice, except for the fact that the report had been paid for by the company that it was written about. At the very least, the original story should have stated that the report had a conflict of interest. Or, the reporter should have found another analyst to quote.

Again, to their credit, the wire service corrected the story when it was brought to their attention But when writing about this company, a penny stock, shouldn't some alarm bells have also gone off? How many penny stocks have research reports written about them from reputable Wall Street firms?

I understand that if a business journalism ethics code were to cover every single ethical scenario, it would be a two-volume book. But with incidents like these happening all too frequently, something's gotta change.

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Copyright © 2008 Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism