Integrity

In the dozen years since I finished college, it has never been more difficult to be a journalist than it is today.

Yes, journalists aren’t perfect and there are some bad journalists out there, who have done some very stupid things.

But I cringe when I bear the brunt of that, from those who barely know me, who assume that the media is some Borg-like machine, out to destroy society. We are not the scapegoats to all the ills of the world.

In fact, most of the people at my job reflect society, having similar histories, lifestyles, mental quirks and crises to everyone else.

Still, I know how important it is that journalists live up to their crucial roles as watchdogs. Like many organizations, my newspaper has a strict, well-outlined ethics policy, trying to set the standard for us to live by, which will make us better watchdogs of those we are supposed to be watching.

A favorite mentor of mine once told me: “Never give up your integrity because there’s no way you can ever get it back.”

I EMBRACE the ethics policy. No free lunches or free gifts over $5. No free tickets to events. No political contributions. No joining any organization that you cover or that you may write about.

And no writing about organizations or activities that involve close family members.

This is challenging when you cover environmental issues and your husband is, by any measure, an environmental activist. But I end up almost ignoring my husband’s environmental group or his activities to avoid any semblance of a conflict of interest.

All that came to a head this week, when my husband oversaw a major statewide conference for his environmental group, with nearly 400 people in attendance, top speakers from around the state and a keynote address from a nationally-known author.

It was a marvelous conference, well-organized, with great speakers at a wonderful location.

Unfortunately, for various reasons, my newspaper was nearly silent on the matter, the choice of other editors and writers.

I ended up fielding the question a few times about why there were no articles about the conference in my publication, especially none written by me. Usually, when I said “ethics violation,” people understood.

Yet a couple of people didn’t, and tried to debate me on ways that I could write that story.

I just couldn’t stomach that. Imagine if some politician out there was using his/her position to promote the spouse’s cause and violate ethics. I would be the first journalist to ream that politico for it. I would be just as unhappy seeing a colleague promoting about a spouse’s cause.

One person never asked me once about coverage of the event – my Darling Husband. He understands the need to maintain my integrity.

It’s nice to discover new reasons why I married him.