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The Public Diplomacy Blog is intended to stimulate dialog among scholars, researchers, practitioners and professionals from around the world in the public diplomacy sphere. The opinions represented here are the authors' own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School.

THE ETHICAL DILEMMA OF BLOGGING
MAR 9, 2006 - 12:39PM PST
Posted by Alvin Snyder
All posts by this author

An estimated 28.8 million bloggers publish on the Internet, while by comparison there are only a paltry 2,500 U.S. daily and Sunday newspapers published. As blogging grows and matures, it needs to confront an ethical issue, as its senior ink-to-paper colleagues have, where free trips and other gratuities are offered by those who would likely expect a return on their investment.

Print journalists have strict policy guidelines to help keep their objectivity and integrity intact and to control potential conflicts of interest. Nevertheless, many still take their junkets, especially plentiful in the entertainment and tourism fields. But individual bloggers who don't have publishing or broadcast organizations to foot the bills are often on their own.

One of the most controversial recent events in the blogosphere was the 2nd Annual Al Jazeera Forum in Qatar in February, where at least 100 blogger-delegates had all travel and accommodation costs covered, courtesy of their host sponsor. Another instance involved 25 bloggers who were hired by Holland's tourist bureau to fly to Amsterdam, stay in a five-star hotel and tour the city with an unlimited credit card. And, oh yes, the bloggers might decide also to write about the great tourist destination, but were not obligated to do so.

Daniel Glover in his Beltway Blogroll was highly critical. "No one who makes the trip is compelled to write one word, good or bad, about Amsterdam and maybe some bloggers will return home and say nasty things about the place. But somehow I doubt they will." He also felt bloggers who took expense-paid trips to the Al Jazeera conference ought to have been more transparent with their readers on disclosing gratuities they received.

The online news association Cyber Journalist suggested adopting ethical guidelines, but acknowledged that "since not all bloggers are journalists and the Weblog form is more casual, they [bloggers] argue they shouldn't be expected to follow the same ethics codes journalists are. But responsible bloggers should recognize that they are publishing words publicly, and therefore have certain ethical obligations to their readers, the people they write about, and society in general."

Policies of the larger news organizations are strict on acceptance of gifts from news sources.

The San Francisco Chronicle advises its journalists: "No freebies….reduced-rate transportation, gifts, or junkets from current or potential news sources, including…agents of another country."

The CBS policy states that "employees shall not accept free transportation, accommodations, services or gifts…to avoid compromising their journalistic independence, but also so as to avoid the appearance of such compromise."

But one mainstream journalist, who wished to remain anonymous, cut bloggers some slack.

"For journalists from less well-funded organizations…free travel and accommodation may make all the difference between being able to attend events or not." But, he added, "journalists who benefit from paid travel or accommodations should reveal this in their writing."

Former New York Times and CBS News correspondent Bernard Kalb agreed that "if you do go the paid-for route, then obviously you add the alert that in fact the sponsor took care of the bill."

But few disclosed to their readers that the sponsor of the 2nd Annual Al Jazeera Forum funded the trips. The theme for the event was "Defending Freedom, Defining Responsibility," but Guardian reporter Julia Day wrote that the forum "has been used to help launch the channel's [English-language] international channel."

At least one blog obliquely informed readers that he was "flown out" to Al Jazeera's forum along with about 100 others, who traveled business class. Al Jazeera's press and public relations office did not return numerous telephone and e-mail inquiries to elaborate on the trip arrangements such as exactly how many were provided free transportation and lodging in the Sheraton Hotel.

The BBC and most other mainstream media chose not to attend the session. A source who wished to remain anonymous said, "The BBC's official policy – which I personally agree with – is that it would not accept the payment of airfares or hotel accommodation associated with attending or covering a conference like the recent Al Jazeera event. Even if a BBC person was speaking at the event, the BBC would still insist on paying its employee's expenses at the event." Otherwise, he said, the recipient would be placed under a perceived obligation.

Of course, there were those who funded their own trips, or whose organizations picked up the tab. It must also be pointed out that panelists engaged in sharp discussions, especially on the issue of whether the U.S. media have lost their direction.

Kelly McBride, ethics group leader at the Poynter Institute told Worldcasting that it would be acceptable to receive transportation and housing if one were asked to appear on a panel discussion at a conference, and to later report about that panel. However, it would be unethical to "double dip" and report on other activities at the event without disclosing that the sponsor paid for the reporter's trip.

Two bloggers who are also academics said they do a combined total of at least three dozen expenses-paid appearances per year.

Professor Marc Lynch, who wrote about the Al Jazeera conference in his blog Abu Aardvark, believes his ethics are in tact because "travel and accommodations plus a small honorarium is the absolute norm for academics giving talks. It isn't the least bit controversial, and 'ethics' doesn't arise at all….I give a dozen talks a year, and every one offers the same – the only variation is the size of the honorarium."

Lynch spoke on panels at the event and his travel and accommodations were also picked up by Al Jazeera. He said he blogged about the forum without informing his readers about the arrangement "because I was there, and it was interesting. I can't for my life imagine any reason why I wouldn't have. That's kind of the point of blogging – you do interesting things, and you write about it."

Ethan Zuckerman, another forum panelist and research fellow at Harvard Law School 's Berkman Center for Internet and Security, received free transportation and lodging. "I speak several dozen times a year. I generally try to minimize the amount of travel I pay out of my own pocket, which means I usually ask conference organizers to pay my travel and hotel rooms," he said.

McBride agreed that "academics have very different standards than journalists. So you end up with two sets of standards, one for the 'professionals' and one for everyone else. That's why I think transparency is so important. If the audience can at least discern which writers are financially independent in their pursuit of topics and who might have a conflict of loyalties."

Blogger-critic Daniel Glover countered that "Too many public affairs bloggers are interested only in condemning the ethical lapses of others, especially journalists and politicians.

"Those bloggers won't even consider the possibility that as they gain access and influence, their own ethics could be compromised. Even worse, they ridicule and attempt to ostracize anyone who dares suggest that bloggers may be susceptible to manipulation, whether knowingly or unknowingly. That's exactly the kind of hubris that ultimately leads to ethical breaches and outright corruption."

Daniel Glover believes bloggers "should be talking amongst themselves to try to establish some norms, and I don't get the sense that many of them are or want to."

As more bloggers begin to publish on the Internet, and as some become better established with large readership, an organization such as the Poynter Institute might be enlisted for guidance. It has an ethics adviser on call at an 800 number, and its advice on blogger transparency should be heeded.
 
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USC Center on Public Diplomacy on March 11, 2006 @ 3:58 pm:
some comments have already been made on this article. They are posted here.

http://www.uscpublicdiplomacy.com/index.php/newsroom/worldcast_detail/060309_the_ethical_dilemma_of_blogging/#read_comments

Patricia H. Kushlis on March 14, 2006 @ 2:18 pm:
Of course, we all need to be wary of potential credibility and bias problems when reading and writing blogs, but since when did the MSM also not have problems with these same issues?

Remember the fake news stories published in the New York Times and the Washington Post by supposedly reputable, but largely unsupervised young journalists? I do. Remember the “accuracy and bias problems in the reporting of miss-run-amok Judith Miller – once one of the New York Times’ “star” reporters – about WMD in Iraq? I do. Remember how Dan Rather lost his job at CBS because of credibility problems with questionable documents about Bush’s military record? I do.

As a public diplomacy officer with the U.S. Information Service who served in both Europe and Asia, I helped arrange trips through the International Visitor (IV) Program that brought foreign journalists, academics and other opinion leaders to the U.S on professional tours of the country. In fact, thousands of foreign leaders and journalists have, over the years, come to the US on such two to four week all expenses paid “get acquainted” trips with Americans courtesy of Uncle Sam.

During my European assignments, I also organized shorter NATO tours for European journalists. These trips included meetings at NATO Headquarters, Arms Control negotiations and international conferences as well as visits to various NATO bases in Europe. USIA/State sponsored journalists’ tours included trips to South Korea and the DMZ for journalists from Southeast Asia. It was rare – only in one case that I knew of – did a media outlet insist upon paying its journalists’ way. On the one hand, I don’t recall that any of the journalists on those trips divulged in subsequent reporting who, or who hadn’t financed or arranged for them. On the other hand, they (and the media outlets) knew upfront that the US government had sponsored the trips. They also knew that they were perfectly free to write as they saw fit.

I don’t understand, therefore, how these USG sponsored trips differ from the all-expenses paid invite from Al Jezeera to blogger (Abu Aardvark) Marc Lynch – a professor of Middle Eastern studies at Williams College - and others to attend a recent conference in Doha.

I also fail to understand the supposedly clear line-in-the-sand being drawn here and elsewhere between professional journalists and bloggers with strong professional credentials like Lynch, Juan Cole (Informed Comment), Jeffrey Lewis (Arms Control Wonk), Greg Djerejian (Belgravia Dispatch) as well as Cheryl Rofer, Patricia L. Sharpe and myself (Whirledview) plus many others (including the academics on Crooked Timber for example) who blog on substantive topics related to their/our expertise. Several professional journalists like Andrew Sullivan and Ariana Huffington also have their own very popular blogs.

I do think, however, that truth and transparency are crucial for credibility whether for bloggers, the MSM or the Bush administration. This to me is the bottom line.

This is an important topic for us at WhirledView (whirledview.typepad.com). PLS's latest post on the subject, for instance, is entitled "Blogging, Snowboarding and AT&T." For other related posts, just click on the categories media and public diplomacy.

Alan Simpson on March 15, 2006 @ 10:05 pm:
Sorry Al but this piece is a bit of a joke.

The idea that a freebie baseball cap, conference admission, or free transport will result in bias, whilst the same editors allow reporters to be led, fed and kept away from the action by Pentagon is somewhat doing journalism a disservice. I would suggest that there has been more breaches of ethics by The New York Times, CBS and the BBC than any of the "Bloggers" mentioned. And before we all gang up against Al Jazeera, how do you justify the many paid junkets of Disney (ABC), and Universal (NBC) who invite thousands of reporters to their Parks every year to experience their offerings. The arrogance of employees of flawed traditional media outlets and their fake "Ethics" is why tens of millions read Matt Drudge every morning.

Many of these "Holier than thou" reporters (as opposed to journalists who investigate and stick with the facts) merely report what is given to them by the Press Offices of both major advertisers, and politicians in power. They would never dare criticize advertisers for fear of losing that revenue, or the people in power for fear of losing access and inclusion in media pools etc. The squeaky clean newspapers consider it prudent to sit on a story for months, even years so as not to "Embarrass" the Administration prior to an election, allow paid inclusion by the White House, or to kill stories that may reduce revenues of major advertisers, even it means the deaths of readers, or viewers. In fact over the past decade "Journalists" of many glossy magazines have been actively told to canvass for advertising placement when they interview key executives, pointing out the added impact of "Getting their message out" alongside the story.

California Academia needs to look at the really important issues that devastating our ability to continue effective news gathering, and not get distracted by irrelevant propaganda about Al Jazeera and an occasional Rubber Chicken Buffet .

Alan Simpson
Washington, DC

Ethan Zuckerman on March 16, 2006 @ 10:29 am:
Mr. Snyder, I've responded to your article on my blog - http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/?p=444 - I hope you'll be kind enough to read my response and respond to my corrections to your article. A brief summary:

- There were not "100 blogger delegates" at the Al Jazeera forum. There were fewer than 20 bloggers present. Almost all were panelist... and, as your ethics expert from Poynter concedes, it's ethically reasonable for panelists to accept payment of our travel expenses to the conference.

- The Al Jazeera forum was widely attended by "mainstream" media, including by BBC's News Director and Newsweek's Middle East editor.

As a blogger, I value the fact-checking role my commenters have - when I get something wrong, commenters let me know and I amend my original post. Any plans to amend the clear factual errors in your post, now that two people who actually attended the event you're reporting on have corrected your errors? Or is that something serious journalists don't do?

Alvin Snyder on March 17, 2006 @ 7:22 am:
Danny Glover forewarned that bloggers “ridicule and ostracize anyone who dares suggest that bloggers may be susceptible to manipulation, whether knowingly or unknowingly. That’s exactly the kind of hubris that ultimately leads to ethical breaches and outright corruption.”

While some unsupported personal attacks were leveled at me, other more serious scholars offered constructive observations, worthy of enlightened debate, specifically on the issue of free trips provided by al-Jazeera.

In the article I attempted to provide a balanced range of opinions on the issue of blogger acceptance of paid trips, and their non-disclosure, which Daniel Glover first raised in his Beltway Blogroll.

In my article on the subject, I sought and reported the views of some of the major players in the debate, and attempted to represent their positions fairly and objectively. I solicited the views of (1) bloggers who represent each side of the “free trip” issue (2) mainstream journalists and their organizations (3) academics and others who accepted the free al-Jazeera Forum trip (4) al-Jazeera (unsuccessfully), and (4) a recognized, independent authority on journalistic ethics.

To write this piece, I have notes of some 45 incoming and outgoing phone calls and E-mails with news sources, including the following attempted contacts with al-Jazeera and its representatives: Abderrahim Foukara, Mounir Daymi, Satnam Matharu, Charlotte Dent, William Stebbins, Nigel Parsons, Kieren Baker, the press information office, and the public relations office. Some responded with a suggestion of someone else at al-Jazeera who might be able answer my questions, but those individuals were not talking.

In my article, I quote the online news association Cyber Journalist, which wrote that “since not all bloggers are journalists and the Weblog form is more casual, they [bloggers] argue they shouldn’t be expected to follow the same ethics codes journalists are.”

I wrote that one mainstream journalist “cut bloggers some slack” when he told me that “For journalists from less well-financed organizations…free travel and accommodations may make all the difference between being able to attend events or not,” although he did remark that “journalists who benefit from paid travel or accommodations should reveal this in their writing.” I noted Daniel Glover’s belief that bloggers who had their trip paid for the al-Jazeera Forum ought to have disclosed this to their readers. I also noted the distinction raised by Poynter ethicist Kelly McBride that “academics have very different standards. So you end up with two sets of standards, one for the professionals and one for everyone else. That’s why I think transparency is so important. If the audience can at least discern which writers are financially independent in their pursuit of topics and who might have a conflict of loyalties.”

The views of academic bloggers were represented who defended their acceptance of expense-paid trips, and their non-disclosure to readers. Another academic told me he believes someone who accepts free travel compromises his or her position. He said it would not be good manners to criticize a host sponsor, and then there is the issue of wanting to be invited back.

As to the question of the precise number of those who took the free al-Jazeera trip, no one at al-Jazeera would respond to this, which I state in my article. Several bloggers wrote that 100 were flown out by al-Jazeera. One blogger wrote that “hundreds” had their expenses paid. I provided a link in my article to GNN (Guerrilla News Network) whose writer went on the trip with his expenses paid, and wrote that “Al Jazeera has flown out about 100 other journalists...to cover the Forum and the news conference announcing the programming for the new English language service, al-Jazeera International.” I also confirmed this fact in a telephone conversation with the writer of that article, Stephen Marshall, during which we discussed both free air fare and housing at the Doha Sheraton hotel, provided by al-Jazeera.

While a few mainstream media attended the al-Jazeera session in Doha, most delegates were not mainstream journalists.

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