PressEthic

As I read the New York Times' ethical guidelines and examined the Jayson Blair case, I thought about my own standards as a journalist. Where do they come from and how do I determine what's important to me?

Besides my mother's general moral code (thou shalt not kill, steal or eat processed foods), the Poynter Institute is my guide. When I blog, I find myself clicking on my Poynter bookmark the most often for the last word on ethical standards.

Editor & Publisher recognized Poynter's leaders as a "Special Ethics Unit" in an article last month.

Editors at the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash. worried about printing a story exposing the mayor as a closet homosexual. When they wanted to make sure they "covered all their bases," they turned to Bob Steele, the Nelson Poynter Scholar for Journalism Values at the Poynter Institute "whose advice on newsroom ethics has become nearly as sought-after as Dr. Phil's views on marriage," wrote Joe Strupp. They got his thoughts on online standards, transparency and other issues.

In the end, the paper took a lot of heat, but Graham says the report sparked neither legal action nor a request for corrections.

The Spokesman-Review case is just one of hundreds of "911" calls for help that Steele and his ethics staff at Poynter field every year. From questions about conflicts of interest to whether or not to list the names of registered sex offenders, the Poynter ethics team has seen pleas for help -- many of them just before deadline -- increase dramatically in just the past few years. The high-profile Jayson Blair and Jack Kelley cases also sparked new ethics policy reviews at many papers.

Steele and Poynter's eight-person staff gets 200 to 300 calls and e-mails a year. They handle 25 confidential inquiries per week. And that's just on specific cases, nevermind the other work they do in research and seminars.

The article continues to give more information on the history of Poynter's rise as an ethical oracle:

Poynter's ethics-assistance history dates back to the 1980s, at the start of its ethics program. Steele became its first full-time director in 1989 after a career that included broadcasting stints in Iowa and Maine.

His staff has since grown to two full-time and eight part-time ethics instructors out of Poynter's 20-person faculty. Its offerings have expanded to include many self-help programs at www.poynter.org. Among them are a listing of guidelines and regular questions to ask about most ethics dilemmas. In addition, there's the "Poynter On Call" hotline, 877-639-7817, which journalists in need of help can call 24 hours a day to reach a representative. (The best time to call is between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. EST.)

"Poynter staffers have always been out there, and we would get calls from people we have known through our seminars," says Kelly McBride, a four-year Poynter instructor and ethics group leader. "But now we are getting more cold calls than we used to, people who come to us on their own with questions. It reflects the broader trend in the industry that when you are making decisions on a matter of ethics, there is a process to go through, not just a gut feeling."

When making my own ethical decisions, I tend to rely on my gut more than McBride would like, I suppose. But if I'm ever in doubt, I know where to turn.