FAIR alert on George Will confict of interest

[G_j]

http://www.fair.org/activism/will-disclosure.html

ACTION ALERT:

Are George Will's Conflicts None of Your Business?
January 9, 2004

George F. Will, columnist for the Washington Post Writers Group, devoted his column on March 4, 2003 to the thoughts of press baron Conrad Black.

After spending two paragraphs describing complaints about George W. Bush's preparations for the invasion of Iraq, Will wrote: "Into this welter of foolishness has waded Conrad Black, a British citizen and member of the House of Lords who is a proprietor of many newspapers, including the Telegraph of London and the Sun-Times of Chicago." Almost the entire remainder of the column is devoted to relating Black's views on U.S. foreign policy.

In the column, Will failed to mention that he has been a paid employee of Conrad Black, who named Will, along with several other mostly conservative luminaries, to the international advisory board of Black's Hollinger International. Each time he attended the board's annual meetings, the New York Times revealed (12/22/03), Will received compensation of $25,000. Queried by the Times, Will could not recall how many meetings he had attended, but fellow board member William F. Buckley estimated his own take at "perhaps $200,000 or more."

Asked whether he should have revealed that the mogul whose views he was promoting had paid him substantial sums of money, Will told the Times, "My business is my business," adding, "Got it?" Apparently he keeps his business to himself; the Washington Post Writers Group's editorial director and general manager, Alan Shearer, did not know about Black's payments to Will, according to the Times. "I think I would have liked to have known," the paper quoted Shearer as saying.

In a response to a letter from a reader criticizing Will's failure to disclose his conflict of interest, however, Shearer defended his columnist. "George's service on the Hollinger advisory board ended two years before Will quoted Black in a column. And the column was not about Black; it quoted a speech by Black in service of a point George was making about national sovereignty."
...more...

[wtmusic]

1. Another pillar of rectitude

:eyes:

[cosmicdot]

2. should've been fired after being exposed RE Raygun's use of Carter's

debating notes ... and, as far as I'm concerned, never heard from again ... 'Got it', George? ... you've misguided this country way too long ...

we $~reward~$ lack of integrity way too much in this country ...

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

3. George Will is a complete and utter joke

George Will? Come on.

[spooky3]

4. How much space would it have taken to disclose this? One sentence?

If in doubt, Will and Shearer had the obligation to disclose that a financial relationship existed less than 2 years previously. Then readers could judge for themselves whether to interpret the column differently. Without the disclosure they have no way to do this.

Sloppy at best, unethical otherwise.

[cryofan]

5. we need to have laws against this kind of stuff and strict penalties

Is it true that these well known journalists are influential when it comes to what happens to the USA? If so, then we need to make sure that they disclose these conflicts of interest. We can do so by making it illegal to do what Will (and no doubt many others like him) are doing. I would like to see Will behind bars for this.

[Dookus]

6. No...

I don't want a government that imprisons journalists.

George Will is a weenie, but there's law against that. Yet.

[dfong63]

7. not imprisoned, just fired in disgrace