David Brown, executive editor of The Commercial Appeal newspaper, believes journalists should be actively involved in their community through organizations like the Chamber of Commerce and United Way. While some argue this compromises objectivity, Brown argues it's important for journalists to truly understand what's happening in the community. Brown takes steps to avoid conflicts of interest by not participating in political activities or sharing confidential board information. However, some of Brown's staff disagree with his level of involvement, believing journalists' role is to observe and report, not participate. The Commercial Appeal itself supports various community programs, raising questions about the appropriate level of involvement for media organizations.

1. Uledia
By F,ob Wiley
DOUBLE TXPOSURE
Cornmunity Involvement: Do Dangiers Lurk In The Board
Room For Those Who Rule In The Ne'wsroom?
a
a
F
F
o
Journalists must auoid imProfriety and
the afpearance of imProPriety as well as
any conflict of interest or the appearance
of conflict. They shotr.ld neither accept
anything nor fursuo any actiuily thal
might compromise or seem to compromise
thair integritl,
From the American SocietY of
Newspaper Editors' Staternent of
Principies, adopted October 23, 197 5.
Ir rs oNp oF THB MoRE DIFFICULT
ethical dilemmas that a journalist faces:
how involved should he be in the com-
munity he reports on? Should he protect
his objectivity and take a strictly hands-
off approach, shunning ali personal par-
ticipation in community activities and
organizations? Or can he, like any other
private citizen, take an active role in
those groups and projects that he be-
lieves in as long as that participation
doesn't interfere with his responsibili-
ties as a journalist? Where does he draw
the line? How much is too much?
Those of us who lvork in this business
tend to think a lot about such questions,
discovering in the process that there are
ferv easy answers to them. The tradi-
tional argument is that, for the sake of
their credibility, journalists should be'
have like "men from Mars," function'
ing as mere observers of the passing
parade and not participants in it. Some
journalists today, however, maintain
that such an approach is unrealistic and
impractical. Their argument is that
journalists-and the organizations they
represent-are a part of the larger com-
munity and that they have a responsibil'
ity to become involved. What's more,
proponents of this approach say that be-
coming actively involved in the commu-
nity is often the best way to find out
what's actually going on in the commu-
nity. Again, there are no easy answers.
This problem becomes particularly
acute for media decision makers-edi-
tors, news directors, and the like, These
are the individuals who are directly re'
sponsible for deciding what gets cov-
ered and how in both the Print and
broadcast tnedia. They are also the jour-
nalists u'ho often get thc nlost requests
to serve on communitY boards, helP
with charitable drives, and throw the
weight of their organizations behind
civic projects. For these media man-
agers, wall<ing the thin linc between be-
ing both a participant and an observer,
between doing "good deeds" in the
community while also avoiding charges
of possible conflicts of intcrest, is many
times a very tricky acl indeed. Again, no
easy ansrers.
Scconrlaty on!kt1'ment, folitical itr'
uoluetnent, holdirtg puhlic office, and ser'
ttice in ccttnmuni.ll' organizatirtns shottld
he auoirled iJ'il comfrotises the inlegrity
of jounruLists and their empblers. Jour'
ttalists and their entplol'ers should cottdttct
tlrcir lsersonal liues in a manner which
prolecls them from conl"lict ol interesl, real
f)avid IVayne Broltt, executive editor of 'lhe Commercial Appeal: "My
rlcfinition of editor inclu<Ies bein$ active in lhe conrlnurrily' . . . ['I'hatl
rvorks for me."
Memfiltis 43

2. ,0r aParenL Their responsibilities to the
lublic are Paramount. That is the nature
their lrofession.
From the Society of Professional
Journalists, Sigma Delta Chi, Code of
Ethics, adopted 1973.
, DAvrD WAYNE Bnowu coMMANDS
the most formidable news gathering or-
ganization in Memphis, an organization
whose influence extends for a hundred-
mile radius around Memphis. The Com'
mercial Appeal, with about 210 editorial
employees, in manY waYs sets the
agenda for public discussion in this
town, simply by virtue of what does or
does not get printed within its pages.
The CA has been the only mass'circula-
tion daily newspaper in Memphis since
its sister Scripps Howard publication,
the Press-Scimitar, closed its doors in
1983. The newspaper can trace its his-
tory back to pre-Civil War daYs, and
thus is one of the oldest institutions of
any kind in the citY.
David Brown joined The Commercial
APpeal in 1984 as executive editor.
Since then he has been highly visible as
Some journalists
behave like "men from
Marsr" with little
involvement in
community affairs.
an active participant in a wide range of
community service projects and organi-
zations. Such involvement was no acci-
dent.
"Before I came here, " Brown says, "I
discussed with my boss the ramifica-
tions of heavy involvement in the com-
munity. He agreed with my observation
that, being the chief editor of this news-
paper, I should get involved in this com-
munity. Because it's the only newspa-
per here, it's a newsPaPer with a rich
heritage, it's a newspaper that I felt
when I came to town was Perceived bY
many people here to be aloof and apart
from the city. And I wanted to do some'
thing about all that. .And I had a practi-
cal reason to get involved, too, and that
was [that] I didn't know MemPhis. I
think the only way to really know Mem-
phis is to get down below the surface,
get involved, and meet PeoPle."
Brown has had plenty of opportunity
to meet people through his work with
community groups. For example, he is a
member of the board of directors of the
Chamber of Commerce, United WaY,
Dixon Gallery and Gardens and Mem'
phis Partners, Inc. He is also a member
of the executive board of the Chickasaw
Council of the Boy Scouts of America,
*b Gourmet Baskets ' Potpourri r HolidaY Decoratiorx*b
BtJ,*aG,ry
6240 Stage Road r Bartlett
(e01) 382-0100
,@
Menlhis 45

3. 46 Memphis
the Board of Governors of the Mem-
phis-Plough Community Foundation,
the Orchestral Society Board, and (he
local board of the National Conference
of Christians and Jews. Other activities
include being a member of Future
Memphis, a member and co-founder of
the Memphis Literacy Task Force, and
several other memberships.
In the past, involvement in such ac-
tivities was generally left to a newspa-
per's publisher. But Scripps Howard
newspapers don't have a local publisher
as such. The Commercial Appeal, for ex-
ample, has Brown as its chief editorial
manager and general manager Joseph
R. Williams as its chief business man-
ager; the two are considered co-equals
in certain areas. Besides, Brown scoffs
at the so-called traditional roles of the
editor versus the publisher,
"There's no one definition of
publisher, nor one definition of editor,
that works in every city or for every ma-
jor newspaper," he says. "I think there
are people rvithin the industry and out-
side the industry who want to shackle
editors by saying, just be an observer,
just sit up on your high throne and issue
daily plaudits or condemnations of
what's going on and pretend that you
knorv what's going on even though
you're not involved in anything. I think
that's ridiculous. But I hasten to add
that it would be easy to lose one's objec-
tivity or to become involved in conflicts,
if you go into it half blind or not knowing
what the potential traps are."
Brown avoids some traps by only sit-
ting on boards for non-profit organiza-
tions and by not getting involved in any'
thing political, Still, being involved in
numerous community activities some-
times leads to situations where Brown is
priwy to information that could be
newsworthy. How does he handle it?
"If I learn something off the record in
a board meeting, I don't share it with
anyone," Brown says. "If I learn some-
thing any other way, I usually do share it
and get my staff working on it. I tell peo'
ple that I won't betray such confi'
dences, but that they have to realize that
I have some real good reporters and it
isn't going to stay quiet for long."
One highly visible position Brown
held recently was the 1986 chairman'
ship of the local United Way fund-rais'
ing campaign. He says that was a good
example of his staff 's professionalism in
that CA reporters didn't hesitate to
write the good, the bad, and the ugly.
"When I was chairman of the United
Way campaign I made a point of telling
several of my editors that United Way
was open season," Brown says. "They
took me at my word and covered it quite
well. There were some negative stories
as well as positive stories, and that's ex-

4. actly what I wanted. I was not involved
in any decision making about the cov-
erage because I didn't want to be since I
was chairman."
Still, some C.4 staffers were aP'
parently very uneasy about Brown's
role in the United Way campaign. It's
not something they would do, and they
didn't enjoy seeing their boss out there
doing it either.
"I have a problem with that, but ob'
viously he [Brown] doesn't," says one
reporter at the newspaper, who asked
that his name not be used. "I'm not say'
ing United Way doesn't do a lot of good,
but I think the ways [journalists] can
bring about change is the way we write
articies or the way we bring something
to light when there's a probiem, rather
than being involved in an active role."
Other C,4 staffers interviewed for this
story voiced similar concerns.
Yet, the example of David Brown
aside, The Commercial Appeal itself is
very deeply invoived in various pro-
grams and projects throughout the city.
These include such things as the Cyn-
"Journalists have to
be part of the
commur1.ity," says
Channel S's Ray
Pohlmarl ((...to see
what's $oin$ on..."
thia Milk Fund, Mile-O-Dimes, Best of
the Preps, Mid-South Junior Fishing
Rodeo, Adopt'A-School, MemPhis
Symphony Pops Concert, and NewsPa-
pers in the Classroom. Some of these ac'
tivities are traditions in the area-the
Fishing Rodeo has been around since
1950, for example, and the Best of the
Preps celebrates its 19th year in 1988'
Another project in which the newspa-
per is involved is Neighborhood Watch,
once considered City Councilman Bill
Gibbons' "baby." 'fhe CA provides of-
fice space for the project on the fifth
floor of its building at 495 Union and
provides some funding, along with a few
in-kind services such as postage. The
Commercial APPeal gave Gibbons an
early and strong editorial endorsement
in his unsuccessful race for mayor last
fall. But by then, says David Brown,
Gibbons had dropped his active support
for Neighborhood Watch. Still, some
people wondered if there couid have
been a connection between the newspa'
per's endorsement of Gibbons and its
support of Neighborhood Watch. "Ab-
solutely not, " says Brown.
'In the final analysis, then, Brown says
the whole issue comes down to defining
just what the role of a newspaper-and
Fa
v
la
ou
Ia Ia,. .
know the rest
$.-
T,"fl "+". yuerl
1031 brooklield (Poplar al l'24O)
(901) 682-9416
l0 a,m.-6 p.m. dailY excepl sunday
Boatmen's
Your Banking
00)
Alternative
Now
you
you
are a
can bank where
person, not
Boatmen's
century!
a number,
has been offering
1,
personal servlce
for over a
East Headquarters
762-6200
Downtown Headquarters
529'5900
Plus
16 Full Service Locations
MemPhis 49

5. Exquisite 721 l)itttnoncl/Plalinutn IJruxrclt
131 rlianr<lrrrls
rvcighin{
appr()x,
7 carat.s l.rv
I'.s(rr(c Stlc
('crrtcr'
rliarttorrrl
1.25 t'iirirts
8tt,5oo
CTIS
flu[usGoodrnan s$0n ,"" lr
RgZex€
r-./!J
50 Menfhis
its editor-should be. "My definition ol
editor includes being active in the com-
munity," he says, "ihere are other'edi-
tors who would not subscribe to that
way of looking at the world, but it works
for nre. "
For the record, the situation is some-
what different at another local publica-
tion, namely, Memphis magazine.
There, for a number of reasons (some of
them purely coincidental), the publisher
and the editor play more traditional
roles. "I don't belong to anything," says
the magazine's editor, Larry Conley,
"except groups like the YMCA and the
public library. That's partly just a mat-
ter of personai preference; I've never
been much of a joiner. But I also want to
avoid a situation where somebody
might think that we covered something
in the magazine, or covered a story in a
certain way, simply because I was per'
sonally involved in that activity or that
organization. I think that's the best way
to approach my job as an editor. Not the
only way, certainly, but still the best
way."
Memfhis magazine's publisher, how'
ever, is involved in a number of commu-
nity activities. Kenneth Neill became
the magazine's pubiisher in 1986 after
serving as the publication's editor for
51/z years, "I never was on a board or
anything when I was editor because I
was in an actual news decision'making
position," Neill says. "I believe there's
a thin line for somebody who's in a posi'
tion of some authority in a news media
organization-where does their private
life stop and their public life start?"
Neill is on the board of directors for
WEVL, a public radio station, and Big
Brothers and Big Sisters of Memphis,
Inc. Both of these organizations are of
personal interest to Neill, but he still
feels the tug of the traditional journalist.
"l don't feel 100 percent comfortable be'
ing on boards," he says. "If I began to
smell some kind of news story on one of
the boards, I think it wouid be my obli-
gation as a media person to get out of
the situation as soon as possible. It's a
real thorny question and I think it points
out the problem that exists with mem-
bers of the media being on boards. "
JeceuB MlNNorrn DIREcrs rHE
news department at WHBQ-TV (Chan'
nel 13) which brings up the rear in the
ratings among the three local network
affiliate news programs. His station has
taken steps to try and improve that sitq'
ation, however, steps such as hiring
popular anchorman Jerry Tate and
pairing him with Claudia Barr. Tate is
on the board of directors for Junior
Crime Stoppers, an organization similar
to Crime Stoppers of Memphis. Min-

6. notte, though, avoids involvement in
community groups himself.
"I have a philosophical problem with
that," he says. "I believe that ourjob is
to report and if one of the boards or one
of the organizations should be involved
in something questionable, I want to
know we can report on it without anY
appearance of conflict of interest."
That puts Minnotte squarely with the
traditionalists, although his station has
been involved periodically in various
community activities. For example,
Channel 13 has helped sponsor a health
screening program in conjunction with
Eastwood Hospital, with the news de-
partment producing several stories on
the project. That kind of involvement
can be justified, according to Minnotte,
because the news department already
has a regular health beat, and health-re-
lated topics-such as a project to do
biood screening tests-are legitimate
news stories. And though he avoids in-
volvement in groups like Junior Crime
Stoppers himself, he has no Problem
with Jerry Tate's participation in the or-
ganization-but for a very good reason'
"I'm not involved in that board," he
says, "and I can make the decisions. If
we find there's a problem there, Tate
will not be involved in coverage deci-
sions. "
Over at Channel 3, meanwhile, news
director Ray Pohlman bills himself as a
hidebound traditionalist on the issue of
community involvement, but he ac-
tually comes across sounding more like
a middle-of-the'roader, Pohiman in-
sists, for example, that his reporters
adhere to a strict standard of objectiv-
ity, and let the chips fali where they
may. "If a story has to be reported," he
says, "it has to be reported-period."
Yet, Pohlman also believes that the
electronic media should be involved in
community affairs, both because of tra-
dition and Federal Communications
Commission (FCC)rules.
"I'm not speaking specifically of the
news product," Pohlman says. "But my
general feeling and the general feeling
of the station is that television is an inte-
gral part of the community in which we
live. In fact, in years past, before the
FCC rules were relaxed somewhat, our
[broadcast] license depended on a cer-
tain amount of public service announce'
ments and programming. And since
news is the only locally produced pro-
gram in television anymore, newscasts
are used more and more to Promote or
market particular projects."
The news department at Channel 3
has helped promote a colorectal cancer
screening test in conjunction with
Methodist Hospital as well as the an'
nual News 3 Health Fair; both projects
received air time during the station's
ARE YOU SUFFERIIG FROM
NO
SURPRISES
0t
Ookley-Keesee
Our foctory troined ond cer-
tified technicions will repoir
your Ford, Lincoln or Mer-
cury no motler where ii wos
purchosed, ond SURPRISE,
we'll tell you whot it willcosi
before doing the work.
Ask obout our free
looner cors ond our
Lifetime Service Guorontee.
Ookley-Keesee
Ford
New & Used Cor & Truck Soles.
Leosing.
77CD Poplor ot Union Exlended
324-73l1
Memtthis 51

7. HIS]
For Information, Conferences, and Tours
Call (901) 767'4460
i100 Cherry Road, Memphis, TN 38177
People aren-'t perfect.
Neither are their noses.
our nose
- you have a right to
be happy with the way it looks
and functions.
outpatient basls in state'of-the-art surgical
suites in our offices - or in lhe hospital.
A full range of facial cosmetic surgery
is oifered: face liftl nose and ear rcconstruc'
tion; removal ofexcessive eyelid skin;
improvement of scars, acne atr<l factal
hlcmishes through dermabrasion or
chemical peel
- plus other procedurcs.
Call or write us lor a consullalion
rvithout oblioation,
Ils a few-minutes of your time that corrld
change the way you look and Ieel iorever
A hump on top of lhe nose; a nose that's
too lono ortoo urdc a nose that s deformed
throuof, iniun or lJUi .itusc of hirth dcfects;
obsrrrictions in rhe nosc lhat cause breath'
ing and sinus problems and headaches.
Appearance or fttttctiorr rna,v be im-
Droved willl nasal or lacialplasttc stlrgery,
' These surgical proccdures can he
performed costefiiciently on a one'day
JOIIN McIVER HODGES M.D.,nA.c.s.
TACIAL COSMETIC SURGERY
HEAD S NECK SURGERY . CHRONIC NASAL CONDITIONS
1325 Ebstmoretand, Suite 450 ' Memphis,!! 38104 t 90l'729'5874
"- 300 T}ieiSireei i West Memphis,'AR 72301 ' 501'735'7603
O1987 llGA Inc.
52 MemPhis
news programs. Pohlman hims
seryes on the Crisis Center board t
directors, and the Mayor's Task Forct
on Drunk Driving; he is also involved
with Grace House, a halfway house for
female substance abusers. He is sched'
uled to begin duties with the board of
directors of Goals for Memphis in Janu-
ary, Pohlman had been on the board of
the local Red Cross chapter until he re'
signed, partly, he says, to avoid any ap-
pearance of conflict of interest.
"Time was a big consideration, and
I'm not going to say my resignation was
all for a noble cause," Pohlman saYs.
"But there were touchY things being
discussed, such as fund raising, and
that's something I can't be involved
with just for the appearance of it. I tell
every group that asks me that I can't get
involved in that sort of thing"'
Slill, Pohlman says that part of cov-
ering the news means living in the com'
munity, not above it. "Journalists have
to be part of the communitY," he saYs.
"The fence will always be there, but at
the same time, it's good to crawl over
that fence and see what's going on once
in a while."
Mason Granger, who heads Channel
5's number one'rated news department,
declined to comment on his involvement
or his station's involvement in commu-
nity affairs projects. "What we do is
pretty much public record," Granger
says, "and what we have on the air
speaks for itself. And as far as my per'
sonal situation'is concerned, I have no
desire to talk about that or to be self'
aggrandizing in any way about what I
personally do."
Channel 5 has been involved in a
range of community activities, includ-
ing health screenings through various
hospitals, job fairs, sports exhibitions,
small business seminars, and Memphis
In May events. One of the station's la-
test ventures is its Homework Hotline,
done in conjunction with the Memphis
City Schools. All of these projects have
been covered as part of the station's
news programs.
So the questions linger-should those
who report the news helP make the
news as well? More imPortantlY, how
far should media decision makers go in
committing themselves and their or-
ganizations to supporting or promoting
community projects? As we have seen,
local media managers have varying opi'
nions on this subject' They may not all
be "men from Mars," but neither are
they Establishment lackeys who turn a
blind eye to problems in the community.
Rather, in the end, most media decision
makers here seem to try to walk a thin
line somewhere between those two ex'
treme positions-all along hoping that
they don't take a wrong steP. I