by editors of Environment Writer
Most of the print and broadcast journalists accepting the offer say they see no conflict in their receiving a valuable service -- with an $835 "standard annual rate," according to Greenwire -- from a company known for its ownership of breweries and theme parks.
But an undetermined number of reporters have turned down the Greenwire "Anheuser-Busch subscribers" offer, apparently for fear of a conflict of interest and for other ethical reasons.
The Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ) declined invitations from Greenwire to officially cosponsor the Anheuser-Busch free subscription offer or to be publicly identified with it, pointing to its own guidelines on gifts and sponsorships. But an Anheuser-Busch representative says she was told by Greenwire that SEJ headquarters now is among the "Anheuser-Busch subscribers." SEJ and specific journalists were included in a listing of subscription acceptances provided by Greenwire, Debra Erickson, Anheuser-Busch Companies International and Environmental Communications Manager, told EW April 4. (SEJ previously had received Greenwire courtesy of a grant from the Charlottesville, Va.-based W. Alton Jones Foundation, but a Greenwire spokesman says that program ended some time ago and that SEJ's complimentary subscription had been continued. SEJ Executive Director Beth Parke says the organization did not accept the free Greenwire offer "as formally offered." She says Greenwire's internal accounting practices may account for the suggestion that it did so. She said she would clarify the situation with Greenwire.)
Erickson says Anheuser-Busch provided $25,000 to Greenwire to have the news digest distributed free to up to 50 environmental journalists for one year because the company thinks the news digest "really serves the interests of environmental journalists." Several press ethicists asked about the offer say a more likely reason is that the company hopes to generate favorable press in areas where it has provided the free service to reporters.
Erickson said the reporters extended the complimentary offer were "mutually" selected by Anheuser-Busch and by Greenwire. She said the company's only selection criteria were to identify media outlets in regions where it operates breweries or theme parks.
Veteran environmental reporter and columnist Paul MacClennan, of the Buffalo News, generally regarded as something of a purist on journalism ethics issues, is among an undetermined number of reporters who have rejected the Anheuser-Busch/Greenwire offer.
"I felt it inappropriate to take what in effect is a cash contribution from a corporation that I may or may not ever do business with as a reporter," MacClennan said when asked why he declined the offer.
"If we find it's inappropriate for a politician to take money, I think
it's particularly inappropriate for a newsman to accept cash or in-kind
services. And further, I think it is incumbent on the people who run businesses
such as newspapers to subscribe to such services if their reporters are
in need of them."
MacClennan said he is disturbed also that Greenwire would offer a manufacturer "a cut rate to provide such a service when they would charge Knight-Ridder, Gannett or [publishing magnate]Warren Buffett much more for the same service."
Asked if his perspective is somewhat ivory tower and perhaps unrealistic in the "real world," MacClennan responded, "Philosophically, I guess that as a reporter I never felt comfortable taking anything from sources or potential sources. If that is being a purist, then so be it."
Referring to the value of the service based on the Greenwire solicitation,
MacClennan said, "$835 to me is a bribe."
MacClennan's concerns over the appearance and potential reality of a conflict
are shared by a number of press ethicists asked by EW to comment
on the Anheuser-Busch/Greenwire offer.
Brigham Young University Professor Emeritus Ralph D. Barney, who edits Mass Media Ethics, suggested that environmental reporters "thoroughly search your soul" before accepting such an offer. He said that acceptance most likely "does not divert the loyalty of the writer in fact." But he urged them to consider "the cleansing power of disclosure" when it comes to writing on matters that relate to Anheuser-Busch or to the brewing or theme park/recreation industry.
"Failure to disclose is the deplorable part," Barney said in a phone interview. "Journalists are in the business of disclosing, aren't they?"
American University Assistant Professor Wendell Cochran chuckled when advised of the Anheuser-Busch offer to journalists. "This would fall generally under the rubric of conflict of interest issues," said Cochran, who teaches media ethics. "It's probably something that journalists shouldn't do."
Given the standard street price of Greenwire, Cochran said the
$25,000 grant from Anheuser-Busch "means it's not an incidental transaction"
from the standpoint of the individual journalist. He is among several commenters
who suggested that journalists hold themselves to the same standards they
apply to others in addressing potential or perceived conflicts.
"If National Journal wanted to give it away to journalists,
I don't see a problem with that," Cochran said. "When an interest
like Anheuser-Busch gets involved, that changes the balance," in part
because the donor in this case is a distinct "identifiable interest"
both for the reporters and potentially for their readers and viewers and
audiences.
One factor contributing to declining public confidence in journalism is
that "we're very attuned to the conflicts of other people, but we don't
see them when they affect us."
Not all of the press ethicists/academics contacted by EW were quite so unequivocal on the issue. To journalism ethics professor Lou Hodges of Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Va., Anheuser-Busch "clearly wanted favorable coverage in those areas of the country where it is giving a gift to journalists." But while saying that "the appearance of a conflict in this case is pretty gross," and that "the gift is intended to buy influence," Hodges allowed that accepting the free Greenwire subscription might still be defensible in certain cases.
He said journalists likely will take the approach that "I will accept this, but I will try to be a good journalist anyway." He said they might seek refuge in the "greater good" defense that the public -- and public understanding of environmental issues overall -- is better off for having the benefit of reporters' being more well-informed as a result of their access to information available from Greenwire.
"The good of the value of that information could outweigh" the potential conflicts, Hodges said. But he said those aspects nonetheless "could bear bad fruit" unless reporters disclose the Anheuser-Busch connection and let audiences decide for themselves.
Hodges -- who long has taught Bible studies at Washington & Lee and who now will teach journalism ethics -- and other ethicists contacted generally reject reporters' defenses that the risk of a conflict is reduced if a donor is distant from the media outlet and has no manufacturing facilities or theme parks in the circulation/viewership area. Nor were the ethicists swayed by suggestions that a reporter may seldom or never write on the company specifically.
But the academics' and MacClennan's views by and large are rejected by a number of working press who discussed with EW their acceptance of the Anheuser-Busch free subscription.
While not all those accepting the offer could be learned, reporters from the Gainesville Sun, San Jose Mercury-News, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, E Magazine, and WCVB-TV5 in Boston are among those counted by Greenwire as "Anheuser-Busch subscribers."
"I think I have a pretty high antenna when it comes to ethical concerns," said Bruce Ritchie of the Gainesville Sun. "I feel like my subscription is a courtesy of Greenwire." Ritchie pointed to the "frustration" regional newspaper reporters feel in not having access to more and better information, and he said he viewed the free Greenwire as "one SEJ member's helping other SEJ members."
"I feel sometimes like I major in ethics," Ritchie said, "and this just isn't hitting me. It doesn't feel like Anheuser-Busch gave me anything."
"No, sir!" reporter Dean Rebuffoni of the Star-Tribune responded when asked if the arrangement might pose a conflict. "That's a stretch."
While he said he does not use the Greenwire service personally,
Rebuffoni asked if there is any instance of Anheuser-Busch's approaching
a recipient journalist and saying, "We've done you a favor ...."
He said his paper and he unquestionably would have rejected such an offer
from a Minnesota brewing company. On reflection, he said, "maybe the
distance caught us with our conscience down .... I don't think it does pass
a smell test, and maybe we should drop it."
Two journalists receiving Greenwire courtesy of Anheuser-Busch suggested
that it poses no more of a conflict, perhaps less, than arises were they
to quaff a case of Budweiser each month.
To the Mercury-News' Paul Rogers, the Greenwire offer raises no ethical issues in part because "newspapers get magazines or publications all the time."
"If it were sponsored by an industry that was closely tied to stories I was following, I wouldn't take it," Rogers said. Like virtually all those familiar with Greenwire, Rogers pointed out that most environmental reporters would benefit by having access to the volumes of news reports it digests five days a week, but he said he unlikely could justify purchasing it outright through the newspaper.
Particularly dismissive of potential conflict issues involved in the Greenwire offer is television reporter David Ropeik, a Boston WCVB-TV reporter and SEJ board member.
"It would be extraordinary that I would cover Anheuser-Busch in any way," Ropeik said in initiating a call to EW on this story. "I don't feel beholden to anyone .... God help them if they have an environmental problem."
Citing "preposterously low" chances of his ever having to do so, Ropeik said he would consider recusing himself in favor of another reporter or "throwing a line in there" on disclosure if he were to do a piece affecting Anheuser-Busch, which operates a brewery in Merrimack, NH, about 50 miles from Boston.
Asked if journalists sometimes hold the subjects of their articles to a different ethical threshold than they apply to themselves, Ropeik responded, "I would hold a judge to a different standard than I hold a gas station owner."
Citing the risk of "political incorrectness," he said too that he is bothered by "the absolutism of this purity to some circumstances that I've seen in some journalists. For them, there is no shade of gray .... Reality comes in shades of gray, and this one to me is sufficiently pale."
In the end, of course, it is journalism's audiences, individually and
collectively, who will decide.
If, that is, they know.
Reprinted with permission from the April 1997 issue of Environment Writer, published by the National Safety Council/Environmental Health Center--Bud Ward, editor.