Judgment Call: Potential Conflict of Interest

Similar issue came up a while back in regard to covering a son/daughter playing sports. Maybe not the exact same situation, but similar.

How does the coach feel about it? How does the ME feel about it? How would you feel? If the coach does something questionable on or off the field ---- from a questionable play call to getting a DUI --- how would you report on it? Would you cover it any differently than if it were anyone else?

 

Caesar's wife.

"Caesar's wife must be above suspicion."

Let the M.E. handle it.

 

A sports editor at a twice-weekly paper is not Caeser's Wife.

Journalist's sense of ethics remind me of school administrators with their zero-tolerance policies. It relieves them of any responsibility to make judgments and thus makes it easy to recite the rules without thinking.

 

I have worked in a weekly paper office with two high schools to cover and you'd better be damned sure sure one doesn't think you're favoring the other. This is an easy and obvious fix.

 

There is nothing in the world you could possibly do that wouldn't make them think that, in my experience.