The NPF Newsbag

Breitbart As A Journalist? And Other Flying Pig Stories

I go out of town for two weeks to do our training program at the International AIDS Conference and  all kinds of stuff happens. There's the phony video about a non-existent racist speech, distributed by the disreputable eye-poker Andrew Breitbart, which gets a government employee fired and sets off a whole series of apologies and "who's a racist?" deep-thinks from the White House on down. Then there's the Journolist issue (which I'll get to in another post). And then finally New York Times media critic David Carr ventured into the murky swamp of identifying the aforenamed Mr. Breitbart as a real journalist, as if its OK to jettison integrity in favor of a-t-t-i-t-u-d-e.

Freelance Reporter or Corporate Shill?

MARCH 31 -- POLITICO has an amazing story this morning about a drug company investigating two senior FDA officials to see if they are in cahoots with its rivals. The company can answer for its own actions. So can the silk-suited gumshoes. What amazed me were the actions of "a freelance reporter (paid) to file Freedom of Information Act requests, using her status as a journalist to request (the official's) emails, phone records" and the like.

The article said the journalist acknowledged working for the investigators and that she was entitled to get tips from anybody. Indeed she is. But you can't work for two masters -- a interested profit-maker, or the disinterested concept of "the truth."

In misrepresenting herself, the reporter benefitted from the ethical practices of freelancers, and soiled the waters for all those who will come after.

This is an important issue, because the decrease in available paying outlets for journalism, or the reduction in pay for professional work, is going to give rise to this kind of issue again and again.  I'd welcome hearing from others.

bob meyers