I reached out to Morgan Packard, managing editor of New Orleans Magazine and editor of St. Charles Avenue, to talk about how she handled receiving gifts or hanging out together on a theoretical “no-strings attached” basis. The interview led to an interesting conversation that proved ethics defined by the Society of Professional Journalists can be quite flexible as long as the journalist closely toes the line. It also showed that here is really no set rules to ethics and that it honestly depends on how strong a person’s code of ethics is and what situation he or she is in. According to the SPJ code of ethics, a journalist should “refuse gifts, favors, fees, free travel and special treatment, and avoid political and other outside activities that may compromise integrity or impartiality, or may damage credibility.” When talking to Packard she said it always OK to take a gift or accept free meals as long as it is not on the basis of coverage. With meals, she said always offer to split the check, but depending on the person and who much they insist to allow the person to her a meal or a drink, etc. In terms of a gift, she said accept, unless they are expecting coverage in return. It’s okay if you lose a friend or source because it is the job of the journalist to do fair reporting. However, if she happens to like a gift that …show more content…
The SPJ code of ethics says, “treats sources, subjects, colleagues and members of the public as human beings deserving of respect.” While they all had different reason for why they held their information, they all had the intention protecting their source because they tough it would help them out in the long run. Is It really ethical to withhold information with the intent of using them for more coverage later down the road, especially if they were doing something illegal? Probably not, but, they felt that the information they knew would do more harm than