My Take

HOW TO MAKE ETHICS A PART OF YOUR NEWSROOM

From Kelly McBride, Poynter's ethics group leader: Discuss ethical issues when you are not embroiled in a controversy. Train staff members to know what promises they can make on behalf of the newspaper and which ones they can't. This especially applies to promises of confidentiality. Recent events have demonstrated that unqualified promises of anonymity should be granted in the rarest of cases.  Create opportunities for other departments to understand the mission and purpose of the newsroom and vice versa. After one of these brouhahas is over, allow for a debrief. Order pizza and give people a chance to talk about the values that drove the decisions. In terms of the ethics policy or code book, it might be better to consider it an imperfect document, always in need of improvement. Having a small standing committee to meet, discuss policies and make recommendations to the editor is one way to keep the process going.

For any newsroom leader, it's simply best to avoid doing ethics on deadline. It's easier said than done, I know. Ethical questions crop up quickly and usually intensify when the clock is running down.

Last year at my former newspaper (the Pioneer Press in St. Paul, Minn.), I recall how an employee -- not a reporter -- walked into my office and handed me a potential scoop. Two days earlier, a Minnesota soldier had been killed in Iraq, but the Pentagon wasn't releasing the name. The employee knew the family. She knew the name. But the family member had not agreed to tell her the name for publication, and the employee had promised to honor that.

I was not happy about the agreement she had made. Yet I was equally unsettled about breaking the trust of her agreement. Throughout the afternoon, reporters worked to develop the story, but still could not get independent confirmation by deadline.

As impatient reporters and editors clustered around me, I stood my ground: We need to get the name elsewhere. My ethical reasoning was clear: Keeping even an ill-advised promise on behalf of the newspaper was more important than losing a scoop. Why? Because credibility with readers is built and destroyed one reader at a time.

It would probably make a better story to say the name was wrong. It wasn't. Even so, the result wasn't as important as the way decision was made -- -- openly, with full discussion and facing all disagreements with the reporters and editors involved.

Because that's really the issue. The goal of any editor is to develop an ethical newsroom, where open discussion about such matters seeps into the culture -- where journalists' behaviors become a part of daily conversation, even when editors face no pressing ethical dilemmas.

The notion of an ethical newsroom is a useful one, given all the second-guessing that takes place after  an ethics blow-up. Editors may assume every journalist in the room has an ethical compass. But that's not always the case. Reporters lose perspective. Editors miss nuances. Deadlines overtake us. A leader's job in an ethical newsroom is to keep the behavior of its journalists foremost in the discussion -- and to reinforce at every opportunity that strong, ethical decisions are a shared value. 

Cultivating an ethical newsroom is a  practice, not an idea. Here are some steps a newsroom leader can take toward that end:

• Be sure your ethics code is a relevant and updated document that reflects changing technology. In St. Paul, we recently settled on standards for our blogs, examining such issues as verification, corroboration, sourcing and attribution.  
• Make it clear that you are always available to be part of a conversation about an ethical decision. Keep your door open. Make the point often.
• Encourage the newsroom to ask questions before events overtake you. Sometimes seemingly benign invitations to fun media events -- to play, for instance, in a celebrity golf tournament -- can pose ethical problems, depending on sponsors and hosts. Editors need to consider those issues before saying yes.
• Keep an "ethical" ear open during news meetings. If something sounds amiss, raise questions aloud immediately, or ask for a follow-up chat. If you hear an editor say, for example, "The media aren't allowed into the meeting, but we're going to try anyway," ask for more detail. The discussion might slow the planning meeting, but it signals that your behavior on the street is as important as the substance of the story.
• Make decisions as openly as possible. Don't just huddle in the office. Hold discussions in plain view, even if it means making tough decisions at the desks of the reporters involved. They may not like it, but their respect for the process will seep in.
• After you've made a decision, if you still have concerns, read the story or look at the picture one more time before the final deadline. Seeing the story or image in a different context can sometimes clarify a position. And don't hesitate to change your mind at that point. You don't want any regrets in the morning.
• Never forget journalistic principle, which can become a casualty of overly cautious ethical decision-making. This happens, sometimes, when journalists are confronted with privacy and right-to-know issues.
• Hold your ground against efforts from other parts of the paper that might create a perceived conflict of interest for the newsroom. Your news columns should be published without fear or favor. Stand guard. If you don't, chances are that nobody will.
• Be sure that the argument of precedent truly applies. Precedent is an easy, default rationale that sometimes doesn't quite fit. Often, the nuance involved in ethical decisions requires situational judgments.
• Show an open mind. You won't always have the right answer. If your editors and reporters see you listening -- and changing, when a more rational argument is presented -- it only encourages a fruitful and open discussion.
• Encourage debate and reflection. Most journalists enjoy wrestling with ethical questions, even after the fact. In your morning meetings, take a moment to explain a decision that was made the night before. Let people jab at it. The process will, again, seep into the culture.

Ultimately, even after all the debate, stand firm for what you believe is right, even if it's not popular. You -- and you alone -- are accountable for the behavior of the newsroom.

Chris Worthington is a former managing editor at the St. Paul Pioneer Press who is currently doing training and consulting.