My First Ethics Column

You can't say we didn't have fun in the old days

                The first column (an Iron Age term for blog) I ever wrote on ethics ran on May 13, 1986.

                I had just returned from an SPJ Regional Conference, my first, and wrote a few “inside baseball” columns in our weekly newspaper.

                The May 13^th column covered the topic of journalism ethics. Most of what I wrote was exactly what I would write today. The biggest difference was I was writing on an early desktop computer networked into the production department. I think they were made by Texas Instruments and were probably outdated when we got them.

                The modernization of technology is only one reason SPJ updated its ethics code in 1996 and again in 2014. Another change has been in the day to day job of being a reporter.

                When I started as a “reporter” I edited recipes, ran a contest called the “Puzzlegraph” worked in the darkroom, filled in on the stat camera (if you have to ask, don’t) rad ad proofs to Mr. Goldberg at Cohen’s of Washington and answered the phone. Even took classifieds if necessary. When I worked nights, any call that came within 15 minutes of when the bars closed was answered “the Yankees in seven.” That probably covered it.

                I also covered meetings and police beat and took photos of cub scout blue and gold dinners and the first day of trout season.

                In a way I feel sorry for rookies today. They spend so much time sitting in front of a computer screen. Papers are so understaffed the reporters aren’t given the time to hang around the cop shop, to drink lousy coffee and schmooze. We may have had to be very careful not to get too close to the cops, but at least we got answers from them.

                Today, I probably would think more about taking those proofs to Mr. Goldberg at the dress shop. Not that I ever really spoke to Mr. Goldberg. I just handed him the proofs and waited while he looked them over. He always initialed them and handed them back without a comment.

                And, in those days, the ad department carried cameras and took photos of the accidents they came across. And, they passed along tips they heard while seeing their accounts. That was in the days when Main Streets still had shops and the ad reps did a lot of walking and a lot of running into people.

                These weeklies may have had staffs so small you needed two departments to get free eggrolls with your Chinese restaurant order (again, if you have to ask, don’t), but we all worked together. We were in the same office in one of the towns we covered. And we were all producing the same product.

                What does that have to do with ethics? Just that there was the feeling that all the departments were on the same page, ethics-wise. Sure, occasionally, the ad department would have liked a favor, but they understood why it couldn’t happen.

                Today, I’m not even sure people in different departments speak to each other.