Syndicate Says There's Less Payola Risk if Columnists Have Journalism Back

[sabra]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001736969

Syndicate Says There's Less Payola Risk if Columnists Have Journalism Backgrounds

NEW YORK The Washington Post Writers Group has a message for newspaper editors in this year of pundit payola: Maybe the syndicated columnists you buy should have journalistic backgrounds.

In a note on PostWritersGroup.com, WPWG executives Alan Shearer and James Hill said their syndicate's columnists "are all journalists, and seven of them have won the Pulitzer Prize. Their journalistic integrity is your best protection of your journalistic integrity."

Journalists "understand better where the boundaries are," added Shearer, when reached Thursday by E&P. "Editors should be very, very skeptical of columnists who didn't grow up in a journalistic culture. Take these columnists if you want, but read their stuff very carefully."

Four syndicated conservative columnists were found, in a series of 2005 revelations, to have accepted money to promote programs and initiatives without disclosing the funding. Doug Bandow, Armstrong Williams, Maggie Gallagher, and Michael McManus had little or no background as newspaper staffers before launching their columns -- although McManus was a magazine journalist earlier in his career.

two things come to mind:
- Duh!
- Jeff Gannon

[RagingInMiami]

1. Journalism died with the new millenium