Regaining Credibility
By Kathleen Cullinan

A music critic accepts a free ticket to a sold-out concert. A reporter mentions on his blog a rumor the mayor will resign. A columnist self-plagiarizes.

Some news industry scandals are magnets for attention, as Dan Rather recently showed, but grayer and less dramatic ethical dilemmas routinely arise in newsrooms.

New York Times Syndicate columnist Jeffrey Seglin told editors at his “Regaining Credibility” workshop at AASFE’s 58th annual convention to foster ethical judgment in situations like those mentioned with meaningful codes of ethics.

Rather than build a code just for legal protection, or offer one that employees think is selectively followed, newsroom leaders should think of ethical standards that employees recognize around them and will refer to, Seglin said.

That way, when dilemmas like the ones mentioned above arise – versions of which were raised by audience members during the session – employees can easily refer to the code as a moral compass.

Seglin, who wrote for five years on business ethics in the New York Times before launching a more general ethics column in February, said good ethics and good management are usually good for business.

This is especially true in an industry where efficacy is so dependent on perceived credibility.

The question about free tickets and merchandise came from Alan Rosenberg of The Providence Journal, who said a version of the dilemma recently came up at his paper.

Using the Journal’s unique code of ethics, Seglin said the newsroom should weigh the possible outcomes, such as reporting bias and accessibility to an otherwise sold-out event, and decide which action most benefits readers and the paper.

The same balancing of potential consequences should guide the reporter as he writes his blog, or the columnist who would lift her own material.

Rosenberg said he was pleased with Seglin’s nuanced approach to ethical issues, and wished there was more time for the audience to debate other case studies.

Kathleen Cullinan is a graduate student at the University of Maryland and a 2004 AASFE fellow.