Dinocrat.com reprints the Viacom and New York Times Company ethics policies, and demonstrates how both have violated their own policies by non—disclosure of conflicts of interest in major stories.

It seems to us pretty clear that these non—disclosure are not oversights — far from it. The CBS and NYT news organizations and the entire MSM delight in reporting non—disclosures and conflicts of interest in others. So why did they not disclose the commercial, reputational, or other interests at work in theese stories? For CBS to disclose the Clarke tie—ins would have lowered the news value of its story, and arguably hurt sales of Viacom's book. The NYT's reasons for non—disclosure seem not so clear. Would the disclosure lower the news value of the story by highlighting the NYT's year—long delay in reporting it? Would the disclosure hurt the bump in its flagging circulation the NYT was undoutedly hoping for from a week—long serial blockbuster? Or are there other reasons?

If the MSM do not go out of their way to achieve transparency in their reporting, they only have themselves to blame when their credibility continues to be challenged and continues to decline.

Good work by Jack Risko.

Thomas lifson  12 25 05