“Remain free of associations and activities that may compromise integrity or damage credibility.”
Take that in and think about it. Now do the same with this:
“Abide by the same high standards to which (you) hold others.”
Both of those were pulled from the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics. It’s the general rules/guidelines many professional journalists strive to follow (most can recite the core tenets from memory). With the NASCAR press corps though that’s not always the case.
Consider the following: after Trevor Bayne crossed the finishline at Daytona there was celebration in the press box and media center (for obvious reasons I won’t say whether I was in either place at the time). Then following that, there was applause and many handshakes in Trevor Bayne’s post race press conference.
I can’t say I was surprised – especially given the press corps. Apparently others were though as there was some discussion about it last week and a rebuke from the current president of the National Motorsports Press Association, Rea White. I wasn’t planning on weighing in – I figured I do enough pontificating about journalism ethics on this blog.
Then came the news today that Sports Illustrated fired their NASCAR freelancer Tom Bowles. Presumably his celebrating at Daytona played a role. The kvetching of a few has now turned into, as Dave Moody termed it, “ClapGate.”
Now I’m not going to kick Bowles while he’s down. For what it’s worth I haven’t always agreed with him and have been more than a little disappointed by some of the stuff he’s chosen to write about – one of the reason’s behind Eddie Pardue’s job loss last season, for instance – but I’m not going to applaud anyone losing their job.
Bowles went on his website Tuesday to explain his firing and complain about the environment. Amidst the piece, he made some good points. He wrote:
It’s a place where the “official” media claim to follow the rules, then give us their opinion seconds afterwards on verified Twitter accounts while hanging “off the record” with the athletes they cover during the week.
I completely agree there is hypocrisy in condemning someone for expressing emotion at an event, and then going online and expressing the very thing they condemn. One is a physical manifestation of opinion, the other is the written form.
We can’t look at this profession though (and I’m not necessarily saying Bowles did or does) and say, “well others are doing it, so that justifies me doing it.”
Journalists must hold themselves to a higher standard. This is, after all, the fourth estate, even if it’s the fourth estate in NASCAR. And though it’s absolutely true opinion and bias exist in everything we do and in every decision we make, effectively and responsibly tempering that opinion in order to maintain credibility goes with the territory.
Therein lies the problem here. And unfortunately for Tom Bowles, Sports Illustrated has staked out it where it stands.
I’m not really sure what will come of all this. Maybe nothing. I just hope there aren’t any shortsighted, knee-jerk decisions by the powers that be. We’ll see what happens.
If you want to read more about this, check out:
It Started with A Cheer (The Daly Planet)
Ten good reasons for a very good rule (National Sports Journalism Center)
Why I didn’t cheer at the end of the Daytona 500 (JayBusbee.com)
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