Phil Record – Texas Center For Community Journalism

Author: Phil Record

Phil J. Record, a native of Fort Worth, joined the Schieffer School as professional in residence in ethics in 1999.

He has been a newspaperman more than half a century, spending most of those years at Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Record first went to work for the newspaper in 1944 as a copy boy. He retired as ombudsman for the newspaper on Dec. 31, 1997.

Record is former national president of the Society of Professional Journalists, the nation's largest journalism organization, and is the recipient of the Wells Key, the highest honor bestowed by the Society on a member. He also served as the international president of the Organization of News Ombudsman. He is former vice president of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas and a former chair of the Mass Communications Advisory Committee at Texas Tech University. He is a member of the Texas Tech Mass Communications Hall of Fame. In 2002, he was named to the newly formed Texas Tech Mass Communication Board of Directors.

Record also served on the American Bar Association’s national Commission on Public Understand About the Law and the Commission on Partnership Programs. He is the recipient of the TCU Journalism Ethics Award and 19 professional awards for reporting, photography and headline writing.

Most definitely. It is called conflict of interest.

Editors of both large and small papers are often confronted with this dilemma. Louis Day, in his textbook Ethics in Media Communications, defines a conflict of interest as a “clash between professional loyalties and outside interests.”

In this case, the clash would be between your responsibilities as a city council member vs. your professional loyalties as a journalists. A fundamental duty of a journalists is to be an observers of events instead of participants.

In your case you would have the ultimate responsibility of the coverage of your city council. As a city council member, you would be acting on issues that have impact your community.

I think it is almost impossible to completely separate the two duties — there will come a time when your action as a city councilman will influence how you cover a story. None of us are totally objective creatures.