Conflict of interest

It was really awkward reporting on the School of Journalism last week (Money woes threaten Scripps professorship). We’ve talked about this what-if situation for many of my years at The Post, and the situation actually arose last week.

Probably the closest conflict of interest The Post ever faced was when the story broke about Larry Nighswander, a former VisCom professor. I wasn’t here yet (the staff might not believe that there was a time I didn’t work at The Post, but it’s true). Then-e
ditor Phil Elliott and others tell me the photography staff walked out. (Most recent article on the Nighswander scandal: Harassed student sues ex-viscom professor again). We are still rebuilding our standing with VisCom.

When we received news that the funding to get a visiting professor at Scripps was in jeopardy, we decided to run with it — after a lot of discourse of course. The fact that we would run the same story about any other school, the prestige of the journalism school, the value Scripps places in the position, and the recent Scripps endowment contributed to its newsworthiness.

A few stipulations myself and the other editors wanted was to make sure we were as transparent and fair as possible. The story went through a lot of editing to make sure we could check it thoroughly; we also didn’t want to overcompensate for our connection to Scripps. I also asked to add in an explanation of The Post staffer’s relationship to Scripps. Because Sean Gaffney, the reporter, used to intern with the Scripps Howard Foundation, we also decided to do an editor’s note.

It’s hard to say whether we handled it completely correctly, but I hope it was executed as fairly as possible.