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Aug
9
Is this okay?
Some views of others, expressed in that article:
The newspaper should take steps to assure the public that Egger’s role as trustee has no influence on news coverage or editorials related to the hospital, said Bob Steele, a journalism values scholar at the Poynter Institute, a newspaper think tank in St. Petersburg, Fla.
“It’s dicey territory,” said Steele. “You have competing loyalties. And competing loyalties, if not properly recognized and not professionally and ethically addressed, can create conflicts of interest [that] can corrode the credibility of either organization.”
And this:
Scott Bosley, executive director of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and a former newspaper publisher, said it makes business sense to serve on community boards. But appearances of conflict have to be managed. “The thing you have to do is be up front about it, with your news operation as well as your public,” he said.
What to do, what to do:
Steele of Poynter offered these suggestions:
Egger should recuse himself from involvement in stories and editorials related to the Clinic and health care, and fellow trustees should not ask him to influence The Plain Dealer content.
Reporters and editors should respect the publisher’s obligation to protect proprietary information about the hospital.
In stories involving Clinic trustees, reporters and editors should treat Egger like any other news subject – “no fear, no favor.” The newspaper should disclose in these stories that Egger is on the board and that he has no role in the coverage.
“This is both disclosure and accountability,” said Steele. “I would lean toward more disclosure than less.”
Italics and bold are mine. So, we know what to look at for every single time they publish any story “involving Clinic trustees.” But what exactly does that mean? What story about the Clinic wouldn’t imply, in some way, the trustees? So, does the article have to be about the trustees in order for this tactic to kick in?
“Dicey” is putting it lightly. Personally? I would want to know, in writing, regarding every editorial that has anything remotely or directly to do with the Clinic, to state that Egger recused himself from the discussion. Period.
This issue sounds like a good one for the PD’s Reader Rep, Ted Diadiun, to address, including a listing of exactly what Egger will do to convey to the readers that his responsibilities to the PD and to the Clinic remain separate.
Frankly, I don’t see how he did not turn down the board position with the Clinic, given his responsibilities with the PD.
Filters? What filters?
UPDATE:
From the 1/07 edition of Cleveland Magazine:
Machaskee’s legacy includes constructing the paper’s huge, $200 million Brooklyn printing plant and its $38 million new downtown headquarters, and expanding the reporting staff and the space for news in the paper. He sat on an astonishing number of nonprofit boards, from the local United Way to the Severance Hall renovation — so many that he became known for spending too much energy on civic causes and wielding clout and not enough on the company’s business. In 2005, he had The Plain Dealer donate $1 million to the Cleveland Clinic’s new heart center — an astonishing sum for a company whose annual profit may not be reaching eight figures.
My emphasis. I would say so. Hope we don’t see anything like that from now on.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 2:32 pm August 9th, 2007 in Politics
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4 Responses to “[updated] PD Pres, Publisher Egger becomes Cleveland Clinic board member”
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Shalom Jill,
Of course it’s not OK.
But it’s standard practice in Cleveland.
This is the kind of thing editors ought to resign over.
Don’t hold your breath.
B’shalom,
Jeff
seems like maybe a bad idea to me as well.
I agree Jeff re: resigning over. I’m facing something like that right now.
Thanks, Ben. Yeah – I mean, it’s the Clinic. He’s the PD publisher. If one wants input from the other, they certainly don’t need to have Egger on the board for that. Honestly, to think that there’s no one else valuable to include on the board that it has to be Egger. And for Egger to think…I’m not sure what, that there’s no conflict? Nuh uh. Even the perception should be prohibiting him from accepting. There are plenty of other entities that could use him and would present far less of a conflict. He’s too savvy for this to be argued as a non-issue.