PressEthic

Should journalists, if they want to remain professionally credible, make a point of not marrying politicians? Ideally, yes. There’s an obvious conflict of interest. But, unless the journalist reports specifically on politics, I suppose there can be some wiggle room. Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer Prize winning syndicated columnist whose husband, Sherrod Brown, happens to be running for a seat in the U.S. Senate, according to a December 8th article by Dave Astor in Editor & Publisher.

The article reports:

Schultz did note that she's going to be very careful about putting certain things in her column, which is syndicated by Newhouse News Service. "Obviously, I can't write about the Senate race," she said. "I'll also stay away from writing about voter-registration issues for the next year. That breaks my heart. I've been interested in that for a long time."

Schultz has received a huge amount of reader feedback since the announcement, but the majority has been from other women offering her encouragement, insulted by the implication that Schultz would use her column to champion her husband’s causes and ideas.

Schultz doesn’t think that this situation would be an issue if she were a politician and her husband were a journalist. I disagree. This isn’t an issue for the feminists, it’s an issue for the ethicists.

In a column, journalists share their opinions, their views. By necessity and choice, we can assume Schultz will be spending much of her free time talking, socializing, etc. with a politician running for office. Won’t her opinions and views be effected by this exposure? It’s not like she’ll be spending an equal amount of time in the opposing camp. So, when she writes about her opinions and views, they will probably match up with her husband’s, maybe even contribute in some way to his campaign? I think it’s inevitable, no matter what gender the politician and the journalist happen to be.

Should she give up her column, then? No. But I don’t think she should use accusations of sexism as a shield. She should just be honest, write what she wants and go on like normal. Her biases and political views are part of what made her a successful columnist in the first place.