Covering Your Ex-Employer

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/10/covering-your-ex-employer

Since we just mentioned Bloomberg News's Ryan Donmoyer quoting his former employer on the wire, we should probably also note that over at the New York Times, Tim Arango has written two articles in the past week (here and here) about the New York Post without disclosing to Times readers in either one that he used to work at the Post. I'm not saying that reporters should be barred from writing about their former employers or former colleagues or that there's anything wrong with the articles. Sometimes the kind of background knowledge that comes from having worked somewhere can be useful in informing a person's reporting, and it's not like Mr. Arango's past job history is any kind of deep dark secret. But a reader who knows the background may look at the articles just a bit differently from one who doesn't. Knowing that Mr. Arango is a former colleague of Page Six editor Richard Johnson, for example, may make today's Arango-written New York Times valentine to the departing gossip columnist a little more understandable to readers wondering what is going on with it.

by Ira Stoll  |  Oct 8, 2010 at 11:17 am Related Topics:  New York, Press receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list