ABSTRACT
Journalism ethicists have frequently dealt with conflicts of interest from the perspectives of news editors and reporters, warning against the lure of freebies, relationships with sources, and involvement in community or activist organizations. While these issues may have some relevance for practitioners, their professional conflicts may present a different set of challenges. Practitioners are expected to be partisan in their loyalties yet equitable in their actions. They are expected to represent the leadership of an organization and at the same time to serve as a boundary between that organization and its varied internal and external publics, ideally seeking to promote harmonious, beneficial relationships among them. Certainly, this may create situations in which clashing interests occur.
