Everyday Ethics

One of the great ironies of journalism in the United States is that individual journalists are asked to sacrifice a bit of their First Amendment rights for the good of their newsroom. We can't sign voter petitions, put political signs in our front yards or declare our opinions about controversial issues through bumper stickers. In short, we keep our beliefs and opinions to ourselves, so that our newsrooms can maintain the appearance of neutrality.

Most newsrooms allow journalists to join community organizations as long as they don't cover those organizations or become officers or spokespeople in them.

Frank Turner is an anchor at the ABC affiliate in Detroit. According to news stories, Turner is filing a complaint with the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission against his station, WXYZ-TV, because his boss won't let him host a Christian radio show.

"I can no more stop being an evangelist than I can change the color of my skin," Turner told Religion News Service reporter Piet Levy. Her story is on Beliefnet.

Turner has been very vocal about his beliefs. A recovering addict, he credits his born-again religious beliefs with his turn-around. He has appeared on Christian programs, editorialized about his beliefs on air and he evangelizes on his own web site. Why would a radio show be any different, he asks?

Newsrooms run into this issue constantly. It's easy to tell someone he can't be a spokesman for Planned Parenthood or the National Rifle Association. It's a lot harder when the individual feels a certain expression, whether it's getting married or protesting or evangelizing, grows from his very being. Turner told RNS he feels called by God, like most Evangelicals, to share his beliefs with others.

The most successful newsrooms are those where management recognizes that this issue of conflicts of interest requires constant tending. You can't just write a policy, create some rules and expect everyone to follow them. Worse yet, you can't have a vague unwritten policy and expect that everyone will understand.

Currently, Turner's bosses argue that he is their exclusive talent and should not work for a competitor. It would have been easier for management to argue that Turner should refrain from public evangelizing in order to preserve the station's appearance of neutrality, had they done so from the beginning.

I'm not sure what WXYZ should do now. But it could be that Turner's personal beliefs and his professional career can't co-exist.