Conflicts of Interest Mean Excluding Opinions

Carly Graman 

cg105511@ohio.edu

Poker Face

In the past few weeks the media has had an uproar of events that provide journalist with a conflict of interest when reporting. From the Ray Rice domestic abuse scandal to the Alaska News Reporter who quit on live TV, it’s hard not to have an opinion.

Our job as journalist is the report that news fairly and accurately without inputting out opinion or views into our writing. This rule may seem simple and to the point, but when you’re faced with moral issues, it’s hard to keep your opinion to yourself. Our opinion should be excluded at all cost. We can’t show bias in our writing because that would be unfair to our readers. However, when a story comes across your desk about a cheat, a killer or a murderer and innocent lives were lost or hurt, it is hard not to have an opinion. As journalist we face this struggle far too often. We are faced to put on a poker face and do our job to get information across to the people. We may want to fill the article with how we feel about the accused or how sorry we are for the families affected, but we must keep our opinions out of it.

http://www.acfe.com/ethics-and-compliance.aspx

Enough is enough

However, sometimes enough is enough. At some point in our careers we are going to have to stand up and walk away from a story. The story might strike a personal soft point or affect us directly. In this instance, it is best to let a coworker take over for you so you are not jeopardizing your position and professionalism. We saw this happen just this past week with Charlene Ebge, an Alaska news reporter who quit on live TV. Ebge believes strongly about the legalization of marijuana and quit her job as a reporter to fight for her beliefs. Even though Ebge did not take the professional leave she should have, her story still shows a point. Journalist are pushed to the edge daily reporting on tough issues and horrible conflicts. Sometimes we may be lost in it all and hit a breaking point such as Ebge did. While her actions where wrong for cursing and quit on live TV, her video has spread nationwide. Her actions have given the TV station a bad representation for her poor actions. We can also learn from this point that our writing and broadcasting affects not only us but the company we work for as a whole.

 Our duty

Conflicts of interest are unavoidable in this day and age. We must remember as journalist we represent ourselves first and company second. Anything we write or say directly affects the public and how they receive information. We must not act selfishly when writing stories and our opinions shall be excluded. When we are found in those tough positions and we can’t accurately do our job, we must openly communicate our editors and coworkers to have someone else cover the story. As a duty to ourselves and our company, we need to make sure we report fairly for the people and to the people with opinions and beliefs left out.