Our travel blogger, Denis Horgan, former Courant editor and columnist, wrote a stinging column in his blog today critical of our old bosses for running stories by two people without disclosing their obvious conflicts of interest.
“How odd that seeing the by-lines of my pal, Michele Jacklin, sets me to grinding my teeth. How sad that seeing the by-lines of my friend, David Medina, makes me despair. But they do. Not that Michele and David write badly: They were expert journalists and the work of expert journalists should very well find a place in a newspaper, like, say, The Hartford Courant.
“Their work does appear in the Courant — and that’s the problem. Michele is Director of Media Relations at Trinity College. David is Director of External Communications for the Hartford public school system. Yet, as happened again just the other day, the Courant publishes material from these two worthies about Trinity College and the Hartford schools and no where does it alert the readers that one is on the payroll of the college to promote the college and the other is on the payroll to speak for the city school system, to represent the interests of the system not the reading public.”
You can read the rest of the column here.
My guess is that Denis will soon have more to write about The Courant. To beef up its meager local news offering, the newspaper is turning to former staffers it let go off. They will not be paid normal wages, that much I know for sure. It will be interesting to see how they will be paid since the IRS has very strict rules about work rules and having people work for less than others at the same company.
The Courant in the past had run afoul of these rules more than once. I will be interested if the new management team has a more creative way of legally having two classes of reporters.
I’d like to respond to my friend Denis Horgan’s column. I think it’s absurd. There is no conflict of interest. Yes, I do public relations for Trinity College. I’m entitled to have a job and earn a living. What is the conflict of interest? That I write blurbs about Trinity and that The Courant publishes them in ITowns? Anyone with an ounce of gray matter in his brain knows that more than half of the material in ITowns is written by flaks and people with a vested interest in the subjects they write about. The reason is simple — The Courant doesn’t have enough reporters to cover the news, so we have to write it ourselves. But what is the conflict? What is unethical about what David Medina and I are doing? I am simply telling the readers of The Courant about the good work, lectures and other programs happening at Trinity College. There is no subjectivity or bias. It’s all factual material. I really fail to see what the conflict of interest is. Denis must have truly run out of material to write about because this is just ridiculous. I consider myself to be one of the most ethical journalists to have ever written for The Courant and I continue to follow the highest ethical standards in my job representing Trinity College.
Michele
Denis and I don’t agree on everything – trust me – on this one I do agree with Denis. YOU DID NOTHING WRONG. Neither did Dave. It is up to the newspaper to be transparent and state in LOUD type that all these individuals have a POTENTIAL conflict.
On my website here there is a public disclosure on ALL of my conflicts so readers can decide how much weight to give it when I write about GE and they know I own GE stock.
Michele has the HIGHEST integrity. Again SHE DID NOTHING WRONG.
The dog
I still don’t understand what the conflict of interest is. To be perfectly clear, I left The Courant nearly four years ago. I have no ties to The Courant. My severance ran out three years ago. I pay for delivery of the paper. I don’t get health insurance from the paper. I don’t have any stock options because they don’t exist any more. I have no relationship with the paper whatsoever. I owe the Hartford Courant nothing and it owes me nothing.
So could someone tell me what the conflict is or even the potential conflict? I have no more conflict of interest than anyone else who posts items to ITowns.
Michele
I can’t image you would be writing these postings if you were still a journalist. Take a deep breath and put yourself back in your old job and then ask yourself how you would really feel.
The Michele I know would understand quicker than I would what the problem is.
The Dog.
It’s a simple fix. All you need to do is state in italics that “Writer Jane Doe is employed by the xxxx xxxx as the [give job title].” Then the readers know what is going on and all conflicts, perceived or real, are obvious to all. I am the volunteer adviser for my son’s school newspaper. We were featured in Editor and Publisher magazine last month, and we’re in Quill magazine from the Society of Professional Journalists this month. I teach these kids, grades 3-12, that when their dad or mom is on a board or something that they are writing about, they should disclose it in a brief disclosure note which we place in italics. One student told me last week that her father donated the pancakes for the pancake breakfast because he is manager of an IHOP. She is covering the breakfast for the November issue. I was so proud of her. So we will make that small disclosure at either the bottom or top of her story. If kid journalists can do this, I would think adults won’t have much of a problem either. I believe this is what George is saying.
Geez-Louise, Michele seems awfully defensive on this issue! Hmmm.