PressEthic

New York Magazine publishes this week "an impertinent look at other people's paychecks". Is that ethical?

Let's be honest: everybody enjoys learning how much money one's friend, boss or professor makes. It tells us about the person and makes us draw conclusions about his way of life. But is that the kind of news that is worth being reported by journalists?

New York Magazine publishes this week a "voluminous and eccentric list of hundreds of New Yorkers’ salaries". The manazine seems to be concious that this may not be very ethical : "Even in 2005, it’s still considered bad manners in most circles to volunteer one’s salary. So putting the list together was a challenge. One local-TV weatherman summed up many opinions when he said, “Oy vey, oy vey, oy vey, oy vey! You know what four oy veys means? It means we don’t talk about that kind of thing, and I’m not going to tell you. It’s personal.” And he was right, of course, though that didn’t stop us."

So can you report about something that's personal and that does not impact other people? Isn't the salary part of someone's privacy, just like family life? Why should people care, as long as this money is not stolen.

I think you should have the right to keep your salary secret. It may be interesting or fun for readers to know it, but just as fun as knowing if someone cheats on his wife or if someone takes drugs. Some papers write stories about that. But they are tabloids. People who work for those publications are not driven by any journalistic ethic. They just want to entertain people and make money out of other people's lives. It is fine, but it is not journalism.

By the way, how come we did not get to know how much money the editor in chief of New York Magazine makes?