wombat778
Posts: 25
Joined: 9/25/2013 Status: offline
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I agree with thewood on this. IMHO, the fairness of the review itself is irrelevant. I believe that SimHQ should not have published a review from someone with a clear personal connection/conflict with the subject of the review without disclosing that conflict. I don't care if the review was the negative, neutral or amazingly positive. It is simply bad journalistic ethics to have not disclosed the relationship. Just for reference, the Society of Journalistic Ethics says "Avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived....— Disclose unavoidable conflicts." (http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp). NPR Ethics handbook says "It’s not always easy to detect when something we have a personal or professional stake in might conflict — or appear to conflict — with our duty to report to the public the fullest truth we can. Conflicts of interest come in many shapes — financial holdings, romantic relationships, family ties, book deals, speaking engagements, and others....In minor cases, we might satisfy an apparent conflict by prominently disclosing it, and perhaps explaining to the public why it doesn’t compromise our work. When presented with more significant conflicts that might affect our ongoing work, our best response is to avoid them. But some conflicts are unavoidable, and may require us to recuse ourselves from certain coverage." (http://ethics.npr.org/category/e-independence/).
< Message edited by wombat778 -- 10/2/2013 12:46:27 AM >
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