It's a violation of Ethics for journalists to accept free airfare, free meals, free hotel rooms, or bribes. You would be fired and blackballed from any real media organization.
It's a violation of Ethics for journalists to accept free airfare, free meals, free hotel rooms, or bribes. You would be fired and blackballed from any real media organization.
Option 2. Athletics needs the coverage. The more, the better. If you disclose the trip was funded by the organiser, we can read the article and watch the footage with that in mind.
I vote #2. I don't get why there's some huge ethical dilemma as long as it's just transportation and/or lodging. I get that paying your own way makes you more objective, but to some extent it makes you less objective if you only end up paying to go to the big meets. I guess you might be worried they'll revoke your travel stipend if you give a bad review?
Anyhow, for now I don't think it's a big problem for letsrun, and it's good for the sport to have good coverage of meets so I'm looking forward to seeing more.
Sdfsdfsdfsdf wrote:
wejo wrote:It's not worth a few hundred dollars or even a few thousand so I could turn it around and say we're not going to be compromised for that amount. I can't justify sending someone to this meet however without the free travel.
As for the "are you a journalist argument", journalists from reputable newspapers in Europe take these trips all the time and don't disclose it. Doesn't make them not journalists.
Wait, do you seriously think that is why he was questioning if you call yourself a journalist?
I am not "Mr. Obvious," but I did think it was obvious he found your claim to be a journalist humorous because:
1) your and Rojo's articles are poorly written, even if you ignore the rampant grammatical mistakes and typos.
2) you editorialize constantly in your articles
3) you have no background as a journalist, outside of your own website
A much better title would be "blogger" or "website owner."
At any rate, the point is that none of us take you seriously as a "journalist" so fly anywhere you want, with whoever is willing to pay for your travel.
Disclose if it you wish. But what possible conflict could there be in covering a track meet when somebody else paid for your airfare? You're aware of the unimportance of the position you are in, right? I mean, you aren't going to influence an election, public opinion, business decision, or any other decision anybody makes, so failing to disclose it seems to have no chance of causing harm to anybody.
Good luck with that pulitzer (feel free to look that word up if you need to).
The Brojos are sports journalists, and great ones; to suggest otherwise is ridiculous.
They are the most successful journalists of track and field and distance running, and their articles are actually incredibly good when you compare to anything else for this sport. They are the only people who write about track & field on a consistent basis who actually understand the sport.
They may editorialize but when they do so they provide a point of view which cannot be found anywhere else, and that is valuable.
It's also quite refreshing as it's clear that everything they say is truly their opinion and they won't let anything sway them. It's incredibly rare to find such cases these days, on any theme of news.
You referred to Carmel as Camel in your lead post. I think that pretty much seals the deal.
Jalopnik takes advantage of opportunities with disclosure all of the time and I'd consider them to be more newsy than letsrun.
Easy answer...accept and disclose.
However, keep in mind that he who pays the piper calls the tune. If you disagree with the person paying, you've got a dilemma that only you can answer.
The fact that you have to ask means you have no interest in journalism and
a no commitment to independent and un-biased reportage.
However, there's no shame in being a 'public relations writer' or 'advertising content creator' though.
Just be honest with the public.
wejo wrote:
Occasionally in the past, LetsRun.com has accepted free accommodations and/or travel for trips to events that we otherwise might not have covered.
I want to open this up to discussion and see whether you all think we should do this in the future.
For example the Camel City indoor meet wants to fly one of us out this year. We did this last year and disclosed it. I asked Jon Gault if he wants to go and he said he doesn't feel comfortable taking the trip but was open to me having the discussion on here.
There are three courses of action and two we could take.
1) Never accept trips from anyone else.
2) Accept trips and disclose them.
3) Accept the trips and not disclose this to our viewers (while this is quite common in Europe and some in the US even do it, we definitely would not do this. Our #1 complaint with some other running sites is they take promotional money to produce content and don't disclose it. That not only is against FTC rules, but violates the trust between the reader and the site. Taking a trip and not disclosing it, isn't too far removed from this).
It is against corporate policy for example at Sports Illustrated to do #2.
We have taken the trips in the past, and always disclosed it. This has happened for meets (one year I went to the Great Edinbrugh XC race in Scotland. I was already in Europe, the race organizers said they would pay for my hotel and the difference it cost me to divert my travel plans)), the IAAF Day in the Life trips (we paid for Steve to fly to Jamaica and Emory to Kenya, once they got there they met up with other journalists and the IAAF paid for everything for the rest of the trip and they got to meet and interview with some of the top athletes in the world), and this past winter when agent Mark Wetmore asked if we wanted to interview some of his top young athletes at a summit in Las Vegas and he had hotel rooms available.
Is this something we should continue to do in the future?
The arguments in favor is we're not going to send someone to Camel City otherwise, we would just cover the meet remotely. Instead with us taking the travel, you all get better coverage. I don't feel like our coverage is compromised in anyway. Plus, if we don't take the trip other groups will take it so you could argue we're at a competitive disadvantage.
The arguments against this is the exchange of money compromises the journalist (even if they wouldn't be paying for the trip themselves otherwise).
My argument against this is journalists get stuff of value all the time. Usually it is in the terms of access, but journalists almost never pay for tickets to an event and aren't considered to be compromised. At the Olympics in London I sat 10 rows up right above the finishline. That seat could have been scalped for thousands of dollars a session. People would laugh if I didn't take it because I didn't pay for it (or even if I disclosed it). So the lines that we draw for pure journalism are arbitrary. The question is where should we draw it for LetsRun?
This could be a case where each of us decides what we're personally comfortable with but I'd like to hear your thoughts if any because ultimately the purpose of these rules is to keep our trust with you.
That trust is important.
The best course of action is to hire me to go for you.
Accept and disclose. Compared to covering something like politics, running is so objective, I'm not worried that your stories will become "corrupted" by a conflict of interest. I'd rather have the in-person coverage! Also, as others have pointed out, it's your blog, not a critical source of world news - do what you want.
Who cares... Your not breaking inside scandals at USATF while being on their payroll as a "consultant." You're covering a track meet.
Quite frankly I see better write ups of meets on high school blogs. Give the trip to me or someone else. I'll give you a nice write up and pictures at no charge.
It's a meet. You should take as many trips that are given to you.
Folks who work on publicity for Adidas, IAAF, Competitor, Marathon Fotos, etc. are not "Journalists" but are Marketing Content Specialists.
P.S. I've never read an article by a reporter who said they got free tickets to the press box at the game.
Why would anyone disclose that or have to?
Like the guy said take the perk and cover the meet thanking them for travelroomboard. in the article .
If you get a fee to produce PR content as a house organ disclose so.
No reason you can not strike a deal saying you will produce PR coverage of event but reserve to produce it unedited by their staff.
I admit I do not know what is "legal" for a journalist or if there is actually a "legal' requirement involved.
.
Yes, definitely take free trips and disclose them. Without being too rude, your level of journalistic integrity is not going to take much of a hit from this, and the meet reports are valuable to both your readers and the athletes competing in them. I could understand the reluctance if you were working for a reputable mainstream media organization or aspiring to become one, but LRC is quite different to that, and mostly for the better (though not always).
You automatically lose any journalistic credibility when you work as a Public Relations mouthpiece for sports teams. But Sports Information jobs are growing while Journalism is dead.
English Major wrote:
The fact that you have to ask means you have no interest in journalism and
a no commitment to independent and un-biased reportage.
However, there's no shame in being a 'public relations writer' or 'advertising content creator' though.
Just be honest with the public.
Yeah, after thinking it over I think you really don't have anything to lose, so go ahead and accept them.
I suspect SI's policy is to prevent them from being influenced to cover events that would not generate interest and therefore profit. If you're willing to risk losing readership at LRC by covering lesser meets that pay for you over bigger meets that don't, I don't see any ethical issue with that, and I can't speak to whether or not it's a good business decision.
You are FIRED wrote:
It's a violation of Ethics for journalists to accept free airfare, free meals, free hotel rooms, or bribes. You would be fired and blackballed from any real media organization.
Huh? Journalism has been dead for eight years.
Wejo, It's not as though you are covering political candidates -- colluding with them, helping them cheat in debates, etc. Letsrun is a fanzine. Enjoy the perks.
Big picture: You are an insignificantly small speck of ephemeral dust, hurtling through a vast universe at eight hundred thousand miles per hour, in a time in space that is equally insignificant.
Small picture: Carpet diem.Take the trips. Party like a secret service agent on their dime. Get Jamin laid. Take photos, videos, write grammatically suspect reports -- it's all part of the charm.
Most news organizations have a written ethics policy. It'd be a great idea to create a standard Code of Ethics for your reporters if you haven't already, which would include the LRC travel policy. Most outlets forbid accepting gifts and free travel, but your policy is your own, based on what you think it appropriate for your organization.
Here's a good resource that includes the critical points to cover in an ethics policy:
You are FIRED wrote:
It's a violation of Ethics for journalists to accept free airfare, free meals, free hotel rooms, or bribes. You would be fired and blackballed from any real media organization.
You clearly don't work in media.
Emma Coburn to miss Olympic Trials after breaking ankle in Suzhou
Jakob on Oly 1500- “Walk in the park if I don’t get injured or sick”
VALBY has graduated (w/ honors) from Florida, will she go to grad school??
2024 College Track & Field Open Coaching Positions Discussion
NY Times: Treadmill desks might really be worth it. Does anyone use one?