Guidelines say to refuse gifts ONLY IF receipt of gifts would compromise journalistic integrity. You can say what you will about Lin (much worse would've been said anyways) but I love Jason's articles and the work he does. Let's not taint his reputation by throwing this mud around. Journalists are people too.
It's ambiguously phrased, but I read that "only if" to refer to the shunning bit: In other words you can join the PTA so long as you aren't on the education beat. I like Jason's work too, but I think most journalists would say you shouldn't accept gifts from people whose performance or decisions you cover regularly as part of your beat. (And I used to work as a journalist.) Sorry, I went out of my way to express my respect for Lin and Friedman. I didn't throw mud. I raised a legitimate question, one that Friedman himself described as "fair."
Lin fans are the worst I've seen EVER! I tolerated it for a while but when they start bad mouthing Beverly who has done nothing but played his butt off for the Rockets it's just too much. Lin fans have no concept of team! I guarantee most if not all of them don't know who I'm quoting in my sig.
dude...way to ruin the spirit of a well written article. Jason opened up in a pure and honest way despite his trepidations and fear of exposing something on a personal level. way to go.
If y'all want to form a Jason Friedman Fan Club, sign me up. Jason wears big boy pants. He can handle a little respectful questioning.
Why should I know? I am caucasian, Italian, lived 95% of my life in Italy. Never watched an NBA game all my life before hearing of Lin and becoming a fan. Never even cared about basketball at all. Of course LOFs should try to be respectful and supportive of Rockets fans and the Rockets team. But for sure I am more than happy to live without knowing who you quoted in your sig. And more than happy to not follow the Rockets team at all if/when Lin is traded.
Does that mean they have asked Lin to come off bench for the better of the team? and now this article is trying to get Lin fans to buy in?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Friedman is employed by the Rockets organization right? The same organization that employs Jeremy Lin. Is there an ethical dilemma if he receives gifts from another employee of the same organization? Moreover it seems like Friedman is more apart of the marketing and PR department of the Rockets and thus only rights positive articles of current and former Rocket employees. I have yet to seem him write a negative or disparaging article on any Rockets player yet. I think he would write these articles regardless of any gifts he received from any Rocket players.
But it is the crux of the issue; he is employed by the Rockets, and all his stories appear on the Rockets web site. No reasonable person would think any story he wrote was not biased towards the Rockets. That position makes any ethical complaint a bit iffy-- disclosure is implied by his very position as a Rockets employee. Furthermore, when your ability to do your job requires close personal interaction with the subjects of your work, the ethics position is pretty murky as well because it is no longer journalistic ethics involved, but also personal ethics. That's something the journalistic rules try to short-circuit by disallowing the situation, but following those rules also limits the type and quality of reporting possible.
There's a wide spectrum here, from someone writing for paper that won't even take advertisements from the companies that are subjects of its coverage (there are not too many of these, but there theoretically could be) to pure PR flacks that simply write exactly what their corporate masters tell them to. The BBC gets money from the British government, but its writers consider themselves journalists, not flacks, and they cover British politics. I agree that these issues are murky for someone like Friedman. I made that clear in my very first post. But I think he regards himself as something more than a pure flack. He can at times be quite critical, within limits, of performances during his webcasts. When he was asked about whether accepting a gift would undermine his objectivity, he didn't say, "What objectivity? I'm just writing PR." It's impossible for him to have the best of both worlds. He's either a PR flack or he's struggling somewhere in the murky middle. And if he wants to consider himself partly a journalist, then I think he should try as best he can and as much as he can to follow a journalist's ethics. And if he just wants to be a total PR flack, then that's fine too. But say it.
Rather than "say it" I'd say "show it." Read his articles and you get a pretty good idea where he is on the spectrum, and I'd say he was somewhere in the murky middle. Demonstrating his allegiance to journalistic ethics would be alienating from the team he is covering, while providing no positive benefit as his coverage is implied to be slanted to the Rockets anyway.
You represent Friedman intelligently and well! You are hereby inducted as the third member of the Jason Friedman Fan Club. Friedman rocks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I've said it several times since he was hired for the position, but I have to say it again... Jason Friedman is easily the best thing that has happened to Rockets.com since they started the site. Certainly since I've been following it. A really excellent article!
They know Lin will accept any role for the team without complain. It is his fans will be a problem so they want to do it step by step...lol
