US journalists launch campaign for 'op-ed transparency'

More than 50 journalists and journalism academics have signed a letter calling on the New York Times to be more transparent about conflicts of interests involving contributors to its op-ed pages.

The letter, sent to the the paper's public editor Arthur Brisbane, is part of an online campaign - launched last Thursday (6 October) - to improve transparency by op-ed writers across the US press. It states:

"There is a disturbing trend of special interests surreptitiously funding 'experts' to push industry talking points in the nation's major media outlets. When these expert commentaries appear... their special interest ties go unreported...

We are asking the New York Times to lead the industry and set the nation's standard by disclosing financial conflicts of interest that their op-ed contributors may have at the time their piece is published."

It cites the example of Robert Bryce, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, which has evidently received millions of dollars in funding from organisations dealing in fossil fuels.

According to the latter, Bryce "masquerading as an unbiased expert" writes opinion pieces and provides commentaries "that promote fossil fuels and dismiss renewable energy." His work has been featured in the New York Times, and on CNN and NPR.

Launched by the Checks and Balances Project, the campaigners have set up their own website, called True Ties.

But Craig Silverman, writing a commentary on the Columbia Journalism Review site, asks: "How much disclosure is necessary?... How much is enough, especially if you have to deal with space constraints in a print edition? What's fair to both the contributor and to readers?"

However he also wrote: "We should move to standardise the way contributors are asked to disclose potential conflicts of interest and relevant related information.

"Once that information is provided, we should meet a higher standard of disclosing it to the public."

Sources: Columbia Journalism Review/TrueTies