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According to Hinson’s account of the incident, last week’s Observer cover story described an ethical dilemma in which CWU President Jim Wahlpert offered the internship directly to Observer Editor-in-Chief (EIC) Isaac Hinson. was discussed. The internship is a graduation requirement for the bachelor’s degree in media and journalism, and Hinson is working towards it. Such an offer would undermine Mr. Hinson’s ability to remain unbiased in reporting on issues related to President Wolpert and would create a conflict of interest between student journalists and the university president. Mr. Hinson has since pledged not to write about President Wolpert during his tenure as EIC to protect himself from the president’s journalistic violations.
Observer staff failed to provide sufficient context to the article. We apologize for any confusion caused. Since our readers were not in the room where it happened, we did a disservice to you by not providing further needed information. In the remainder of this article, we hope to further clarify the situation and explain why we believe President Wolpert’s proposal is important to report.
President Wolpert’s relationship with Hinson prior to February 13 was almost non-existent. Hinson said he had previously interviewed President Wolpert once. But Hinson said Wolpert didn’t recognize him in this recent interview, acting as if they were meeting for the first time. President Wolpert said no such offer was made to the two previous EIC monitors, Morgana Carroll and Catherine Cammarata, during his tenure. To the Observer’s knowledge, there is no precedent for a relationship between the EIC and President Wolpert to be purely professional and non-Observer related.
David Leder, associate director of strategic communications and university relations, was instrumental in securing this potential internship. In a Feb. 13 phone conversation with Observer news editor Winnie Killingsworth, Mr. Rader claimed that he had not been contacted by President Wolpert about internship opportunities before or after Mr. Hinson’s interview. . In short, Mr. Rader was completely in the dark on the subject.
Mr. Rader’s outsider position and President Wolpert’s lack of knowledge of Hinson led Observer staff to question President Wolpert’s intentions in providing such an opportunity. Student success should be of paramount importance to university presidents, but frankly, we at the Observer believe that President Wolpert’s direct approach to Hinson is inappropriate in his capacity as EIC and I believe it is outside of President Wolpert’s jurisdiction.
It is important to note that, whether intentionally or not, all conversations regarding this offer took place outside of Hinson’s recorded interview, which focused solely on the hiring of CWU’s new president. That being said, there is no record of this conversation ever taking place, other than Hinson’s testimony. Andrew Morse (chief of staff Answers to further questions about the offer, as stated on the cover of the last issue of the Observer.
of Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Code of Ethicsjournalists may “refuse gifts, favors, fees, free travel and special treatment, and engage in political or other outside activities that may compromise their integrity or impartiality or that may undermine their credibility.” It should be avoided.”
this will be repeated Observer’s own policy manuall Split into three separate instances. Employees and reporters must: “Avoid actual or perceived conflicts of interest. Stay away from associations or activities that may compromise your integrity or undermine your credibility. Gifts, favors, commissions, free travel, special offers Avoid secondary employment, political involvement, public office, or service in community organizations if it compromises journalistic integrity.” It goes without saying that maintaining a career in journalism requires integrity and bias. The ability to separate yourself from others is essential.
At Observer, we maintain high standards on this issue. Our norms and beliefs reflect those found in trusted news outlets in the “real world.” While we have no ill will towards President Wolpert, accepting his offer would void the contract that each member of the Observers must sign before joining the team in any capacity. Masu. Mr. Hinson would not be able to maintain his sacred credibility as a journalist if he accepted the internship possibility mentioned by President Wolpert.
This violation will go beyond the CWU newsroom. In the future, the information Mr. Hinson reported could be tainted by his interactions with President Wolpert, and Mr. Hinson’s own journalistic integrity could be questioned not only by his viewers but also by his employer. be. That’s a big deal. As for the offer itself, President Wolpert should not have approached Hinson about the internship opportunity during the interview. This is a separate conversation, removed from the shadow of Hinson’s work at the Observer.
Part of the role of newspapers is to act as a watchdog for people in positions of authority. For campus newspapers like the Observer, the university president is one such person. If this ethical dilemma were not made public for the reasons stated above, we observers would be unable to fulfill our role as watchdogs.
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