Abrasive Reporters

Dear Dr. Ink:

In your expert opinion, is it ethical for a reporter to offer threats to public relations directors when trying to gather information? Such as, “If you don’t respond to these questions, it will look bad for you and your organization in the paper.” Where is the line between aggressive and intimidating? Thank you.

Answer:

When faced with a difficult question such as this one, Dr. Ink often reverts to a favorite slogan from the late editor Foster Davis: “It depends.”

This is not a defense of situational ethics, because Doc believes that standards help point the journalist in the right direction.

Doc is thinking, for example, of those interrogation room scenes now the staple of TV police dramas. When do the cops resort to lying, intimidation, and violence? It depends. Andy Sipowicz (played by Dennis Franz on “NYPD Blue”) has been known to “tune up” a suspect or two in order to discover the whereabouts of a kidnapped child. While torture is immoral, unethical, and illegal, the audience is inclined to cheer him on. When Andy gets violent because he’s been drunk, grumpy, or intolerant, he loses our sympathy.

So, in general, Doc thinks it is unwise for reporters to try to intimidate sources. In most cases, if a source tells a reporter three times that he or she does not want to talk, the reporter should move on. Doc sees no problem at all with the reporter working to persuade a potential source to talk on the record. It’s better if this is framed positively: “We have all these people saying bad things about your company. We very much want to give you every chance to respond to the charges.” Or: “We’re afraid the story will be imbalanced without your perspective.” Or: “We can’t create a full picture of what’s really going on without your help.”

Dr. Ink worries a bit about anything more assertive: “Do you realize how bad your company will look if you guys stonewall this?” But the more important the story to the public interest, the more aggressive the reporter can be.

The best neutralizer of reporter aggression, of course, is when public relations professionals “get ahead of the story,” that is offer information or take action before anyone requests it. It is possible, of course, for a PR person to complain to an editor about a reporter’s behavior. Talk about stone walls. Such actions usually make the editor defensive, and the reporter even more abrasive.