Community involvement versus journalism

I’ve argued for years that journalists need to be involved in their communities, and that worries about conflict of interest are only what you make them.

Last Friday, through my involvement with the Graffiti Task Force (I serve as its vice president), I was made aware of the fact that our coordinator Gord Giles had been charged with theft in connection to the RCMP auxiliary program. Shortly thereafter came the dreadful news that Gord had taken his own life.

That is an event that any journalist, having heard it in the course of his or her job, would normally have rushed into print. I didn’t, because I didn’t receive the information in my position as editor of The Daily News. Some might say that I neglected my duties to my own newspaper by not using the information. Others might say that if I’d used it I would have been guilty of a conflict of interest.

I subscribe to the latter view. If I used confidential information obtained through my service with various community groups, I wouldn’t be on any of those groups for more than five minutes. I serve on eight community boards and committees, and I’m privy to confidential and sensitive information from all of them. I  look at it this way: if I wasn’t on the Graffit Task Force, I would never have heard about Gord Giles that Friday afternoon, so journalism was no further behind than it would otherwise have been. And, would the world really have been a better place if the paper that employs me had published the information a few days early, before family and authorities had been properly prepared?

A reporter learned of Gord’s death early this week and published a story Tuesday, but without the details because nothing was released at that time. This morning, RCMP held a press conference with family members to outline what had happened.

They were the right ones to make the decision about when to release the information.

I admit I feel pretty anxious when I have to “sit” on information sometimes. I wouldn’t be much of a newspaper guy if I didn’t. Not long ago, some information was leaked to the media from one of the boards I serve on, and I suspect it might have come from another media person who serves with the same organization. That one really disturbed me because when media people do serve in a public capacity they have to be doubly sure to keep confidences, otherwise we’re all under suspicion.

If I’d received the information about Gord Giles from someone else, in my capacity as a newspaper editor, I would have felt obligated to assign a reporter to look into it right away. But, it didn’t, and I’m content to let things play out in such circumstances. And I remain convinced that media people can be faithful both to their roles as journalists and as citizens of their communities.