Comments on: The Ethics Of Coming Clean http://blog.bradrourke.com/2010/03/02/the-ethics-of-coming-clean/ Thoughts for leaders where new media meets public life. Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:27:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Drew Snider http://blog.bradrourke.com/2010/03/02/the-ethics-of-coming-clean/comment-page-1/#comment-475 Drew Snider Thu, 18 Mar 2010 23:02:19 +0000 http://blog.bradrourke.com/?p=2103#comment-475 Judith is right: it's an object lesson for everyone involved -- and for all of us. In my broadcast journalism background, one has to avoid any appearance of being "bought off", and stations had clear guidelines that were part of the welcome package for new hires. Mind you, any 17-year-old interns I worked with would be put to work erasing tapes, stripping the teletype (yes, that dates me -- all the way back to 1999!) and monitoring other stations' newscasts. The closest they'd come to reporting would be doing the police and fire checks. If there was even a breath of a tradeoff, anyone -- not just a rookie -- would be hauled into the boss' office for a conversation that probably would start with, "what in blazes are you playing at?". Daniel ... read this carefully: there is wrong in this world, and there is right. Contrary to what some may have taught you, there are no gray areas and they do not depend on what looks good to you at the moment because chances are they'll mess up someone else. Trading any kind of coverage for a favour of any kind is WRONG. You have, potentially, another 40 years of career ahead of you and you want to cleanse yourself of this faux pas before it becomes "something you got away with" and escalates into something that sticks to you like the tattoo of the wrong girl's name. When I was 17, I had already seen my dad, a TV producer, send back a pair of cufflinks that had been sent to him quite innocently by a guest on his show, thanking him for the air time. Dad would not let himself be accused of accepting any kind of favours. Others did - and may have been promoted faster at the network - but now they are gone, and my dad is 87 and living in more-than-comfortable retirement in his own house. Think about it. And to Dan's parents ... "train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it." (Proverbs 22:6) Judith is right: it’s an object lesson for everyone involved — and for all of us. In my broadcast journalism background, one has to avoid any appearance of being “bought off”, and stations had clear guidelines that were part of the welcome package for new hires. Mind you, any 17-year-old interns I worked with would be put to work erasing tapes, stripping the teletype (yes, that dates me — all the way back to 1999!) and monitoring other stations’ newscasts. The closest they’d come to reporting would be doing the police and fire checks. If there was even a breath of a tradeoff, anyone — not just a rookie — would be hauled into the boss’ office for a conversation that probably would start with, “what in blazes are you playing at?”.

Daniel … read this carefully: there is wrong in this world, and there is right. Contrary to what some may have taught you, there are no gray areas and they do not depend on what looks good to you at the moment because chances are they’ll mess up someone else. Trading any kind of coverage for a favour of any kind is WRONG. You have, potentially, another 40 years of career ahead of you and you want to cleanse yourself of this faux pas before it becomes “something you got away with” and escalates into something that sticks to you like the tattoo of the wrong girl’s name. When I was 17, I had already seen my dad, a TV producer, send back a pair of cufflinks that had been sent to him quite innocently by a guest on his show, thanking him for the air time. Dad would not let himself be accused of accepting any kind of favours. Others did – and may have been promoted faster at the network – but now they are gone, and my dad is 87 and living in more-than-comfortable retirement in his own house. Think about it.
And to Dan’s parents … “train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6)

]]> By: Judith Iglehart http://blog.bradrourke.com/2010/03/02/the-ethics-of-coming-clean/comment-page-1/#comment-474 Judith Iglehart Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:43:20 +0000 http://blog.bradrourke.com/?p=2103#comment-474 Thank you for this case study. All companies have a responsibility to set the parameters for interns and to show by example what and what is not acceptable. Sounds like everyone will learn valuable lessons. Payola is not something with which a company wants to be associated. Thank you for this case study. All companies have a responsibility to set the parameters for interns and to show by example what and what is not acceptable. Sounds like everyone will learn valuable lessons. Payola is not something with which a company wants to be associated.

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