Checkbook Journalism Is Bad For Industry

By: Allan Wolper Ethics Corner Column

It was inevitable. Reporters, in this age of Civic Journalism, are reminded daily that they are members of the community and must interact with the people they're covering. So news folks are interacting -- with their checkbooks.

Journalists at The Boston Globe, WGBH public radio in Boston, The Associated Press, The New Yorker, Chicago magazine, and KCET-TV in Los Angeles all gave money to former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich's campaign for governor of Massachusetts.

The most interesting thing about the ad hoc Reporters Committee for Reich is that its members seemed astonished anyone would think they had done anything wrong. "They didn't realize why it was important for journalists to look independent as well as be independent," said Bill Dedman, the Globe reporter who uncovered this latest version of checkbook journalism.

Even worse: Mary Jane Wilkinson, the Globe's managing editor for administration, gave Judy Foreman, a syndicated health columnist published in the paper, permission to contribute $250 to U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry's re-election campaign. So Foreman figured it was OK to write a second check to Reich.

Why? Because Foreman covers personal-health matters, not politics. As if Medicare, Medicaid, health insurance, prescription drugs, and abortion are not political issues.

After Dedman asked Wilkinson about her policy, she sent out a memo warning her reporters not to give money to political or social-action groups, including "Planned Parenthood and Greenpeace."

And Foreman asked Kerry and Reich, both Democrats, to give her money back.

Dedman's piece got barely a whisper from the vox populi. "We received just one e-mail, but no one complained," said Globe Ombudsman Christine Chinlund, "so I am not going to write anything about it. I try very hard to deal with issues initiated by my readers."

That lack of meaningful outcry saddens Bill Allison, managing editor of the Center for Public Integrity, a Washington-based good-government group that monitors questionable political activity. "There was no outrage because people expect reporters to do these kind of things," he said. "It's a sign of the low ethical standards that we have to put up with these days."

Not surprisingly, Dorie Clark, Reich's press secretary, saw nothing untoward in journalists showing their affection for her candidate with their checkbooks. "If a journalist wants to give us a campaign contribution, we'll accept it," said Clark, a former City Hall reporter for the Boston Phoenix, a weekly alternative newspaper. "It's something that reporters have to discuss with their editors. But the money involved is clearly not very large."

No, it's not. Reich received only $2,530 from 15 journalists -- a total that doesn't register as a full percentage point of the $1 million he's received thus far for his campaign. But it certainly says a lot about what is wrong with the press these days.

Journalists who freelanced for The New York Times, a copy editor who recently left The Roanoke (Va.) Times, and a Winchester, Mass.-based freelancer are among those who contributed to other candidates for Massachusetts governor, according to Dedman.

Eric Fehrnstrom, press secretary for Republican candidate W. Mitt Romney and a one-time political writer for the Boston Herald, said he did not write any checks to politicians when he was a journalist. "You knew you didn't do that kind of thing," said Fehrnstrom. On the other hand, his campaign will not turn down a journalist's money. "If a reporter wants to contribute to Mitt Romney, then we will accept his business," Fehrnstrom said. Romney received a single $100 contribution from a WGBH producer -- even though the celebrated radio station has a rule against its reporters giving money to political candidates.

Too bad Karla Hailer-Fidelman, a columnist at the weekly Newton Tab, owned by Herald Media Inc., didn't consult with Fehrnstrom on how to behave when covering a campaign. Hailer-Fidelman was a Reich delegate at the Democratic State Convention, gave $85 to help his campaign pay for hats and buttons, and wrote several stories on him -- all within five months. Still, she wrote a column attacking Dedman for picking on her, claiming she was not guilty of a conflict because in one of her columns she announced her support for Reich and because her editor gave her permission to do what she was doing.

Why is all this happening?

"Editors know all the ethical rules, but they don't always tell their reporters about them," Dedman said. "Those rules are not handed down from one generation of reporters to another. And I don't think that disclosure by a reporter cures the conflict."

Journalists who contribute to political campaigns won't be incarcerated in ethical prisons for crossing the line that separates Them from Us. But the candidate who gets the money feels the reporter is in his pocket. The candidate who didn't get the money is sure of it. And the readers won't believe a word of the political news they're getting.