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Identifying and Removing Conflicts of Interest
Although the goal of a journalist is to always remain impartial and seek to find the truth to uncover all sides of a story, many reporters find themselves struggling with conflicts of interest. This may mean that their personal opinions or obligations to friends or family may get in the way of writing a completely fair story. It is often forgotten that journalists are human beings with opinions and lives outside of their job. What is one to do when news begins to overlap with their personal life or opinions?
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| Source: pri.org |
3 Steps to Maintaining Credibility:
1. Do not involve yourself with a story concerning your friends or family.
Do not write a story concerning people with which you are close. Do not write about them personally, or about their employment. Furthermore, do not use people with which you are close as a source for a story. If readers discover the conflict of interest, they may question your motives for writing the story, completely depleting all credibility.
2. Do not accept or give donations.
If it is discovered that you received donations from various churches throughout a community, many readers may wonder if that was the reason you wrote a story about the problems surrounding the legalization of same-sex marriage. Furthermore, if readers discover that you donate money to certain political campaigns, it will be difficult for them to trust your facts when covering the opposing side. Whether you give or receive, the flow of money will be discovered eventually. Readers know that although money can be given innocently and journalists may be fair, it is more likely that there were underlying motives in the donation.
Gary Schweitzer, publisher of HealthNewsReview.org explains what types of problems can arise when media outlets accept donations from drug companies.
"There are also an increasing number of conflicts of interests on the part of news organizations or professional journalism organizations who accept money in the form of not just advertising, but sponsorship of the work they do. So their news organization is taking money from the entities that they report on every day," explained Schwitzer. "I find it troublesome...that if big-name reputable news organizations take money from a miracle drug company... How can the audience know for sure that the news organization will report as vigorously as they would if they weren't taking money from that entity."
3. Remove yourself from a story if you feel your emotions are making you unable to handle the story fairly.
Prior life experiences may make certain journalists unable to remove their bias to fairly report on a story. A reporter who suffered from a sexual assault may be unable to write a story about an alleged rape in the area. The reporter may unknowingly be unfair to the accused, who deserves a fair trial and story regardless of the reporter's former experiences. It is difficult to draw the line, because it is your job. However, if you feel you are not the proper reporter for the story, it is important to speak up and say so.
Being close to a story may often make the journalist even more passionate about the topic. However, it is important to remember that the credibility of the story decreases when the reporter may have a reason to angle it a certain way.
For example, Anna Song, a reporter for KATU of Oregon City, worked on a story surrounding the kidnapping and murder of two local little girls. Although she did not know the children prior to the story, she became emotionally involved after interviewing the friends and families of the girls involved. She spoke at a funeral and gave her condolences.
Although it is difficult to blame her given the circumstances of the story, she technically broke the SPJ Code of Ethics. She became involved in a story in which she was covering as an outside third party. Her emotional investment was a direct conflict of interest, and could have resulted in her removal from the story, or even the publication itself.
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