Ethical question

Gifts are like tips. They make us work harder to do a good job. If we didn't get them, we might not do as good of a job.

 

Ethics in journalism are as outdated as pica polls, copy carriers and full newsrooms.

 

Of course it's unethical. That's not in question. The real question is whether you give a damn or not about it being unethical. Some do.

 

I guess that's what I really wanted to gauge. It bothers me. But maybe I'm just being too naive. Even in the current state of our profession, I still believe in what we do. Maybe too much.

 

See, this stuff happens all the time. When it is something that benefits the lowly staffers, it's an ethical no-no. When it's something that benefits the company overall, it's business as usual.

Publishers and editors who get real pious with their newsroom employees often do not think twice about bending standards to suit their own deal-making.

 

At one of my stops, free tickets were all over the place. I was always afraid to ask for them, but I got so many handed to me by co-workers that I lost track. My former boss (a very well-respected SE in this business) was king of throwing around tickets to everything from movie premieres to concerts to plays to sporting events.

The way it was explained to me is that because the paper was a corporate sponsor of most of these events and that's why we had the tickets.

 

Most of the tickets we get are swap deals.

 

So true. I sometimes forget about that. I'd say keep the tickets, but some shops might fire you over that. In this economy you might not want to risk that. Taking freebies I'm sure is a fireable offense in some shops.

 

I once did a story on a local off-roader and after the photographer left, the local off-roader tried to slip me $200. I refused it and then told my SE when I got back to the office, so that I couldn't be accused of foul play.

I don't think it made a difference to the SE that I passed up the money, but to this day, I feel I did the right thing.

 

Oscar, Oscar, Oscar ... you did do the right thing.

 

Personally, I don't take anything if offered, but I don't see any problem with the magazine staffer taking the tix if it wasn't the writer.

 

Only unethical if you let it impact your reporting.