Keeping the flame of journalistic ethics alight By Hendry Dubroff, past SABEW president and editor and publisher, Pacific Coast Business Times
Most of us think of ourselves as professionals. We are lawyers and accountants, bankers and real estate brokers. We are marketing experts, educators, engineers, general managers and chief executive officers.

What makes us successful? Part of it is experience. Part of it is training. Part of it is learning how to stay at the cutting edge.

In my world, the profession is business journalism. It does not require much in the way of tangible skills. Writing helps. A pleasant phone voice doesn’t hurt. Knowledge of percentages is nice but not essential.

Being a true professional in business journalism requires something more. It requires a sense of ethics and duty -- and a good nose for news.

In the current round of financial scandals it is rather remarkable to me that our profession has not been caught up in the debate about professional conduct. There has been some question about whether or not we should have seen Enron’s collapse coming. But in terms of professional conduct, we do not have a Martha Stewart or a Bernie Ebbers on our hands.

Gary Klott, a business writer from San Luis Obispo, is one reason why. Klott died at his home on Aug. 10 of an apparent heart attack at just 52 years old.

Throughout most of the 1990s, Klott was the ethical watchdog of an organization called the Society of American Business Editors and Writers Inc., or SABEW. Most major business news organizations have heavy representation in the organization, which numbers about 3,500 members and is headquartered at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. Klott, a former reporter for the New York Times and author of a number of books on personal finance, was president of SABEW in 1994.

He beat a heavy drum on professional conduct issues. He saw the growing wealth of our members as a cause for concern. He saw the growing encroachment of advertising on news as a cause for concern. He was all too keenly aware that past periods of financial boom and bust had dragged our profession through the mud of insider trading and improper conduct.

He organized a reworking and a tightening of our organization’s code of conduct. Following his lead, many news organizations now have policies that discourage journalists from owning individual stocks. We try hard to avoid conflicts of interest and the appearance of conflicts of interest. We have encouraged full disclosure of investment holdings. And we have worked hard to keep the advertising and editorial departments of our organizations separate and independent.

Klott’s influence was felt in other ways. When SABEW raised money for an endowed chair in business journalism, Klott insisted that our fundraising be limited to news organizations and independent foundations. He did not want our organization to cross any lines in doing some good work for the future.

Klott gave a lot to business journalism but he also received a lot in return. He met his wife, Sandy Duerr, executive editor of the San Luis Obispo Tribune, at a SABEW meeting. Duerr also is a past president of our organization and the former business editor of the daily newspaper in Louisville, Ky. They have two young children.

I served on the board of governors of SABEW during the time that Klott was president. I moved through the chairs of the executive committee and in 1997, I was elected president of SABEW. One of the things that I learned early on was that when it came to a tough decision about ethics or professional conduct you could never go wrong by asking yourself “What would Gary think?”

Since Klott and I served on the board together, a lot has happened. There has been the IPO boom, the Internet boom, the tech bust, Sept. 11, the CEO crisis and the stock market meltdown. We’ve had plenty of discussions about the ethical and moral responsibilities of business journalists. I like to think that Klott’s high standards have prevailed in the discussions.

It makes me truly sad to know that Gary Klott won’t be there, in person or on the phone, to help the rest of us draw those tough ethical lines in the sand. But those changes to our code of ethics will stand as long as our organization exists.

And, after talking things over with several colleagues, Sandy has decided to create a mid-career program in business journalism ethics that will be run by SABEW and named after Gary. The Tribune has generously pledged the first $10,000 gift to the program.

Many of you have taken the time to talk to our newspaper and to share perspectives about your professional world. Now you know a little bit more about ours. Thanks for listening.

Dubroff can be reached via e-mail to mailto:hdubroff@pacbiztimes.com.

Go back to Gary Klott: Words and Memories