At least gifts sent to reporters won't pile up. Rules require all items worth more than $25 -- and many valued at less -- to be returned to senders with an explanatory note. That doesn't bother columnist Bill Husted, who says the stuff he receives is less interesting that most folks think. A quick survey of his desk turns up "a box of Girl Scout cookies from last year, a candy apple, a Corona Light, a Mountain Dew LiveWire in a bucket, a KBCO calendar, an aluminum box of mints and a Cherry Creek Shopping Center hand fan."
The policy also forbids employees from investing "in any company they cover" and declares that if a member of "an employee's immediate family" owns such stock, "it may constitute a conflict of interest and should be reported immediately to a supervisor." Presumably, this edict could target spouses who established portfolios prior to marriage, adult children and conceivably even parents. Likewise, employees are permitted to sink cash into "widely held mutual funds and similar investments" that might include stock from covered companies, but potential conflicts "should immediately be disclosed to a ranking editor." For Aldo Svaldi, who covers mutual funds for the Post, this proved to be quite ticklish. In the end, the best he could do was to make sure his 401(k) didn't include any Denver-based funds.
Mark Andresen
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Svaldi and others are allowed to attend what the policy describes as "receptions, dinners or mixers that help with source development" if they "pay their own way," but media days are out. When Svaldi hears about events "where we're not going and the Rocky is sending ten people," he wonders "if they maybe have closer contact with sources by going than we might get." Still, he says, "I really haven't missed it that much. And after a while, they stop asking you."
When it comes to political and civic involvement, the questions keep coming, since there are proscriptions against putting candidate-hyping bumper stickers on private vehicles, working for political candidates and causes on personal time or participating in rallies, marches and demonstrations. "It is not the newspaper's intention to excessively control private lives," the policy reads, "but keep in mind that if your involvement becomes public, it may compromise your professional credibility and the newspaper's." Investigative reporter David Migoya concurs and goes a step further. Although the policy encourages employees to cast ballots in elections, he prefers to neither vote nor register a party affiliation. In the view of the Poynter Institute's Steele, the latter choice is one every political reporter should consider.
For numerous Post employees, the word "consider" is key. They see an outright ban as infringing on their individual freedom, especially since their union contract gives them the right to engage in outside activities as long as they're not in direct competition with the paper. As such, the policy is being reworked with an eye toward finding a middle ground acceptable to the Denver Newspaper Guild. Says DNG administrative officer Tony Mulligan, "The guild supports an ethics policy and ethical reporting, but we also want to preserve an employee's right to a personal life. There needs to be a separation."
Managing editor Clark is confident everything will be sorted out soon. He sees the policy as emphasizing "common sense. There are clearly some don'ts, but the majority is a road map, a guideline for ethical discussion and ethical decision-making. No policy can cover every single circumstance that can happen in any given day, but it sets up a system for thinking about things and having a rational discussion."
After such a chat, G. Brown waved farewell to the Post and said hello to a fine new gig. On November 17, he stepped in as the morning-drive host for KCUV, an Americana radio station at 1510 AM. In addition, he's awaiting the spring 2004 publication of his new book, Colorado Rocks!, a popular-music history of the state.
Aside from saying that the Brown matter would have been handled identically whether a new ethics policy was in the works or not, Moore declines to talk about the case, calling it a "personnel matter." Speaking generally, he describes plagiarism as "one of the cardinal sins of journalism. Even at newspapers that believe in second chances, when you have blatant lifting of material, you just have to impose the severest penalty."
To put it another way, Moore sees this sin as a different kind of betrayal in the ranks.
