Ethical Question: Should journalists show solidarity or show restraint?

In the past I've stayed away from tweeting about political topics but the stakes are way too high now. Plus, if you cover the NBA or NFL, those are such black leagues as far as the demographic of the players, and anyone who has a job covering them is profiting off of them. The least you can do is publicly align yourself with their pleas for basic humanity right now.

That's my thought, anyway. And I certainly haven't been discouraged from tweeting about it from my employer.

 

You just now got to that line?

 

Personally, I'm just impressed you got through a couple of posts without talking about THE SUITS.

 

The problem is showing solidarity for any cause is that the reporter showing such solidarity risks being manipulated. For example, what if an athlete or a coach only wants to be interviewed by people who Express solidarity with that individuals particular cause? I can see several big-name people (LeBron James, Steve Kerr, Gregg Popovich) pulling something like that. Would the journalist in question have to express false solidarity in order to get the interview?

The only thing that journalists have is their credibility. Once that goes, it's nearly impossible to replace.

Let's not forget that the profession is being excoriated because of high-profile journalists becoming ideological prostitutes. They soil the profession for the rest of us.

 

Our organization has a policy, as I'm sure many do, of giving the columnists room to comment on any and everything, while reporters are supposed to stay out of expressing political opinions to avoid damaging the organization's credibility.

I get it. Generally us reporters can "stick to sports" and we're fine. This seems different. I have a regular commentary space that's mostly separate from where I do my reporting. I submitted a column for publication this week that "goes there." Nothing more radical (at least to me) than suggesting we should all try harder to understand others' points of view. But I have a feeling I'm going to get called out for it on social media after (if?) it runs.

So what then? I feel like I'm going to have/want to defend myself. And that may put me in one of those no-win situations.

 

Are they? What are the stakes? Lives are in danger if Random Beat Writer III doesnt tweet?

 

Pretty quickly, the “let’s listen to other points of view” is going to morph, at least on Twitter, into “do you or do you not support defunding the police?”

When it goes there, it’s going to get interesting.