Election Ethics

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iStock credit McCaig

By Casey Bukro

Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists

Elections can be just as challenging for journalists as they are for the candidates.

The interviews, the allegations, the polls and the long nights of watching election results. And making sense of it all, including whether candidates are being ethical.

Nowhere is the watchdog nature of American journalism more critical than at election time, when the future of local communities, states and the nation often are decided by  votes cast for candidates or for propositions or funding.

Acting ethically

Journalists themselves are expected to act ethically in reporting the facts without favoritism to advertisers or special interests, which is underscored by the Society of Professional Journalists code of ethics.

That became an issue for a public radio station during an election. The editor and producer told the Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists that the station runs a paid announcement from a local business owner whose name is the name of the firm. That business owner is a candidate for the United States Senate. In the past, the station pulled announcements naming a candidate for public office off the air, but that prompted listener complaints.

In the case brought to AdviceLine, only the name of the business is mentioned in the announcement, but not in connection with the election. To complicate matters, the radio station’s business office points out that that the business owned by the candidate has a contract for radio announcements, and pulling the announcements off the air would be a violation of the contract.

An ethics expert

This case went to David Ozar, one of AdviceLine ethics experts.

“There are two kinds of issues here,” Ozar wrote in a report on the case. “One is the question of whether the announcement constitutes improper endorsement of this candidate by the public radio station, or at a minimum the appearance of impropriety on the part of the station.

“The second is a fairness question, or rather two of them. First, if the announcement continues to run, is there an unfairness to other candidates? Second, the fairness issue associated with breaking a contract unilaterally (assuming that the contract does not include a clause permitting either party to terminate at will provided due notice is offered, or something like that.)”

A discussion

Ozar and the radio station executive discussed whether the public would consider the radio announcement a political endorsement. They agreed that most public radio listeners recognize the difference between paid announcements that support the station financially and endorsements of political candidates. So it was unlikely that a significant number of listeners would consider the announcements in question an endorsement of a political candidate.

But, Ozar observed, the announcements do give public recognition to one candidate and not to any others running for the senate seat, which raises a fairness issue. The case also raises “the appearance of endorsement issue,” he believes.

The contract

“And then there is the fact that there is a contract involved,” Ozar wrote. “So one option would be to contact the sponsoring candidate and explain the station’s concern about fairness and the appearance of impropriety, hoping he will agree to their delaying the rest of the contracted announcements until after the election.”

If that did not work, Ozar said another option is for the radio station managers to violate the contract if they believe airing those announcements might harm the station’s reputation.

For the future, Ozar suggested that the radio station adopt a new policy that would ban airing public announcements naming candidates running for public office until after the election.

AdviceLine does not know what course of action the radio station managers decided to take.

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The Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists was founded in 2001 by the Chicago Headline Club (Chicago professional chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists) and Loyola University Chicago Center for Ethics and Social Justice. It partnered with the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in 2013. It is a free service.

Professional journalists are invited to contact the Ethics AdviceLine for Journalists for guidance on ethics. Call 866-DILEMMA or ethicsadvicelineforjournalists.org.

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About cbukro

Casey Bukro was inducted into the Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame in 2008 for outstanding contributions to Chicago journalism, after a 45 year career with the Chicago Tribune. Bukro retired from the Tribune in 2007 as overnight editor. He had pioneered in environmental reporting and in 1970 became the first full-time environment specialist at a major metropolitan newspaper in the United States and covered major developments on that beat for 30 years. He won the newspaper’s highest editorial award in 1967 for a series on Great Lakes pollution. The Society of Professional Journalists awarded Bukro its highest honor, the Wells Key, in 1983 for writing that organization’s first code of ethics. He is a past president of SPJ’s national ethics committee and a past president of the Chicago Headline Club. Bukro graduated with bachelor and master degrees from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. In 1998, he received the Northwestern University Alumni Association’s alumni service award for 17 years of volunteer service to the university. He has lectured in environmental journalism and journalism ethics at Northwestern, the University of Chicago, DePaul University, Loyola University Chicago, Columbia College, Columbia University and others. Before joining the Tribune staff, Bukro worked at the former City News Bureau of Chicago and the Janesville Gazette, Janesville, Wis.

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