April 29, 2006

By MATTHEW VON PINNON
The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead, N.D.

Our newspaper recently ran into a sticky situation, one that probably happens more than most of us want to admit.

It left us in a grey area, and I wonder how other editors might respond.

One of our veteran reporters had been investigating a particular government body for more than a year. He'd written great and eye-opening stories about it that served a public good despite some criticism from the body itself.

One day a few months ago, while interviewing a former employee of the body about worker salaries there, the source asked our reporter to e-mail him the salary list so he could effectively comment on its contents.

Our reporter did that.

Soon after, the former government employee e-mailed all the current employees the salary list. The body learned the list came from our reporter.

It's important to note the salary list was an open record and anybody could have asked for it, but few workers, if any, had.

The e-mail created a mini firestorm within the department and had the department heads accusing our reporter of unethical behavior and demanding he be pulled off the beat.

The reporter said he did not send the file to the whistleblower with the intention that it would be disseminated.

What should happen to the reporter? Can he continue to effectively cover that story or beat, or has his credibility been harmed beyond repair? Should reporters share information with others if it is a public record?

We told the government body, but not the public, that our reporter erred in judgment and removed him from the beat so the paper's credibility could not be questioned on future stories concerning that body.

What would you have done?

Please direct your comments to:

Matthew Von Pinnon
Managing Editor
The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead
mvonpinnon@forumcomm.com