Drawing the line between journalist and source

It's getting trickier these days. Try as I might, I've slipped a bit from those days when I sent a $10 Starbucks gift card back to a source. And might I add, I only did this after my boss admonished my hastily accepting it with a whiny, "but I looove lattes..."

I've accepted free nights at hotels, buckets of pralines/gift cards/barbeque chips, free flights, dinners, wine, champagne, flattery, you name it. Am I coming clean?

That said, I'd also like to mention that everyone who's bought me things is still under the same watchful eye as those who've bought me nothing (and ps, if this is you it's not too soon to prepare for my August birthday. I am a size 12.)

The problem is that the line between journalist and source is becoming hazier. In the social networking age we are "friends," aren't we? And if we aren't, why in the heck haven't you accepted my Friend Request, Mr. Source? I know I am often troubled as to why I haven't been granted immediate access by editors I've met once or twice at a cocktail party but can't seem to shake that hangers-on from high school whom I barely remember from chemistry class.

What's the answer? How do journalists stay pure in this increasingly sullied climate? I'd like to think I am still that journalist who sends the Starbucks card back, but I'd be lying. It's tougher as a freelance writer, not making a regular salary, not having an editor within eye-shot who can throw me a disapproving glance when I jump with joy at that free $310 a night stay in a King suite. But I will try.

Yes, I will try to send back all invitations to expensive dinners I will not be obliged to pay for, provided my sources stop expecting me to accept. No, that doesn't sound right either. How's about this: I will strive to stay as honest as possible in my reporting, regardless of whether I've accepted a free lunch from said source.

I remember as a reporter covering financial technology on Wall Street, I often charmed my way into the offices of executives all the way through lunch at any number of Lower Manhattan eateries. I got a great scoop this way, and I am sure my boss (a gay male) had no qualms about hiring me for this very reason. Use what you've got.

It's tough enough getting paid at all these days, so why not allow us this one small pleasure. Besides, my creative juices don't even begin to flow until I've had a nice hot soak in a Jacuzzi while sipping free Moet and Chandon.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Generations: How a young millennial journalist makes (and gets) her news (part 1 of 2)

Image
Marissa Gamache will be starting her senior year of college this autumn, spending part of it studying in Ireland at Maynooth University before graduating from Bethel University in Minnesota. She is completing a double major in journalism and international relations, and this summer, is interning as a reporter on the government team at Transport Topics in Arlington, Va. where I am a business reporter. I wanted to discuss with Marissa how her generation of reporters sees journalism these days, where it's going, and how she fights the allure of getting all her news from Facebook . Marissa, when you think of previous generations of journalists, what words come to mind? I think of the 6 p.m. nightly news and my parents. Are they journalists? No. I think of old journalism, Watergate, Edward R. Murrow, and Bob Costas. Thank you. So, how do you feel your generation is changing the way journalism is done? I think we're on a minute-to-minute basis. I think we are expecting...
Read more

What you should know about homelessness

Image
According to Yale Neurology I am homeless . I say according to them, because the resident who saw me most recently noted that. I did not want to depict my lifestyle that way, but how else would one assess five consecutive nights without shelter? Although I make $1163 a month in Early Social Security benefits and am getting a small stipend from a cousin, it is never enough here in Connecticut. Between dental bills and storage payments to both the U.S. and the U.K., where I went to grad school, I'm tapped out two weeks after receiving my money. You don't want to lose even one night of sleep. Although you may think you understand how it feels, because you have traveled to Peru and experienced jet lag or enjoyed an all-nighter at 17, ending up at a pancake house at five a.m. and not sleeping (as I did once), you don't have any idea. After five nights of sleep deprivation, even if you can count backwards by 7's (as I did for Yale Neuro, at their request), you are confusing w...
Read more

9-11 Conversations, 10 years of memories

Image
Edward's cousin worked at Cantor Fitzgerald. I would hear about his cousin's death when Edward came into Barnes & Noble in Westport, where I began working in October, 2001 after my job in New York came to an end that August. Edward was very depressed. He just wanted something of his brother's, wanted to go back, touch the site. I believe he got a sweater of the cousin's. Then there was the time I was wrapping a child's gift. I smiled, "Who's it for?" The patron, stonefaced, told me "her father died in the attacks." *** Moving to New York in 2001, I had a choice of either living in the city or moving farther out into the 'burbs. I chose the latter, but commuted into Midtown Manhattan, where I worked as a real estate writer for Rubenstein Associates. This PR firm happened to have represented, and still does, Larry Silverstein Properties. I had no idea who Silverstein was, but I knew this was all pretty fancy. I also knew that New York w...
Read more