Conflict of interest

In response to failing economic models, some pioneering newsmakers are coming at the problem from a different angle: non-profit journalism.

Last Tuesday The Texas Tribune, a new online-only, non-profit news site, joined the handful of journalism outlets already working with a non-profit model: the Voice of San Diego, The New Haven Independent, Propublica, and the MinnPost, which just marked its second anniversary, are a few of the most successful.

In an ongoing look at CNN correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s relationship with cyclist Lance Armstrong, StinkyJournalism opened a discussion with ethics expert Bob Steele at the Poynter Institute. Steele has written about how journalists can avoid or mitigate the competing loyalties that might turn into conflicts of interest. He has also written about Dr. Gupta in the past, exploring the question of competing loyalties in his work as a doctor and his history with...Go to full story

Last month, StinkyJournalism investigated a report by CNN correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta because of a possible conflict of interest.  Dr. Gupta interviewed Lance Armstrong in an “exclusive” story broadcast on July 27, 2009. He, however, failed to clearly disclose that he is on the board of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, LiveStrong. Gupta, we also discovered, has written positively about Armstrong in the past, defending him against charges of...Go to full story

This summer we wrote about freelance journalist and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee journalism lecturer Jessica McBride's affair with the city's police chief Ed Flynn after she had written a profile on him for Milwaukee Magazine.

Daniel Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel  broke the story after anonymously receiving e-mails and a letter exchanged between McBride and Flynn revealing their relationship. As details about the affair came out, McBride...Go to full story

On September 24th, Socialmediagroup.com--an agency helping businesses navigate the socially engaged Web--hosted a web seminar on the ethics of blog-brand relations. In light of new rules from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the agency selected four bloggers/marketers to discuss and debate whether and how companies should compensate blogs for writing about their brands. With the FTC's new rules requiring bloggers to disclose when they are writing about a...Go to full story

To say that newspapers are struggling to keep up with new media would be a generous understatement. After more than a year of severe cutbacks and complete collapses, those print publications that have survived must find a way to position themselves within the Internet landscape.

Recently, the Washington Post issued new guidelines specifying how their staff can use social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. While the guidelines clarify a few important...Go to full story

When Washington Post op-ed columnist Anne Applebaum decided to write a defense of film director Roman Polanski, who was recently arrested in Switzerland 31 years after fleeing the U.S. where he was charged with raping then-13-year-old Samantha Geimer, Applebaum failed to disclose that she is married to the Polish Foreign Minister, Radoslaw Sikorski. Sikorski, along with Poland's President Lech Kaczynski, is lobbying the U.S. to drop proceedings on behalf of their native son...Go to full story

David Pogue, who is described on the New York Times website as "the personal-technology columnist," is claiming he's not a journalist. Pogue's protestations come in the wake of recent criticisms about his interview with Apple CEO Steve Jobs and concerns about the columnist's varied interests -- specifically, the conflict of interest that arises because of Pogue's personal line of software manuals, some of which provide guidance for the same software Pogue reviews for... Go to full story

The Hartford Courant will publish celeb blogger Alysa Auriemma's monthly posts, but in an about-face clarified her role and won’t be paying her to play. A day before the papers editors’ publicized their ruling, StinkyJournalism.org caught up with Alysa Auriemma over the phone while she was packing to leave the starving artist lifestyle in Gotham. She candidly spoke about the job description as The Courant’s celebrity blogger covering the 2008 Champion NCAA...Go to full story

I was alerted to an ethical question weeks ago by a tweet from an old medical journalism professor and from Andrew Holtz of Holtzreport.com: Should CNN’s resident health guru, Dr. Sanjay Gupta be interviewing Lance Armstrong, when he is on the Lance Armstrong Foundation "LiveStrong" board of directors? Is there really any wonder how Gupta and CNN were able to tout scoring "an exclusive interview with the cycling champ"? It is notable that some... Go to full story