[B]y and large, journalism should ignore itself.
At least where it actually appears: in newspapers and magazines, on radio or television, or online. Unless a top editor is murdered (or at least fired), news about the news should be kept where it belongs, in an occasional classroom or conference and in the corner saloon.
Alas, as Vermont PBS hired and – well, not fired let’s just say un-hired – Green Mountain Power Corp. spokesperson Kristin Carlson as the host of a new program this week, the subject has intruded into the public prints and pixels.
As explained by Vermont PBS CEO Holly Groschner on Thursday, Carlson and the station agreed that the Friday evening program called “Connect…with Kristin Carlson” would henceforth be called “Connect…” with several different hosts.
None of whom would be Kristin Carlson.
A bit embarrassing. The program had its debut last Friday, a rather well-promoted debut, at least by public broadcast standards. Carlson had already taped show number two, slated to run this Friday evening at 8:30. Clearly, the plan was for her to remain the permanent host of the interview show.
Then came the complaints, or at least the questions, first from blogger John Walters of the Vermont Political Observer, then from WDEV’s Mark Johnson as he interviewed Carlson on his radio program last week. Then from many others. Wasn’t this, Johnson asked (and Walters all but asserted) a conflict of interest? Carlson was no longer a disinterested observer, as she had been for 14 years as a reporter for WCAX-TV (Channel 3). She is instead the “Media Director,” of the state’s most powerful corporation, an energy company whose profit margins can depend on public policy. Should she be interviewing prominent and powerful people on TV?
Still, it’s noteworthy that neither Carlson nor Groschner seemed to realize that the answers to the question about whether it is a conflict of interest for a corporate PR person to be a public TV interviewer is not debatable. The answer is yes.
Who says?
Well, Holly Groschner among others.
Interviewed earlier this week by VTDigger.org’s Morgan True, Groschner said, “There’s no potential for conflict, because it’s being managed.”
A managed conflict of interest is … a conflict of interest.
A relatively harmless conflict of interest? Perhaps. But a conflict nonetheless.
Besides, Groschner said the conflict would be “managed” by avoiding the subjects of politics and energy. But how on earth can an interview program with prominent Vermonters avoid politics? For the first show, Carlson interviewed Mary Brown Guillory of Burlington, who started the state’s first NAACP chapter.
NAACP chapters take political positions. Interviewing an NAACP official without discussing politics is both difficult and pointless.
Besides, making the transition from reporter to corporate spokesperson has its price. Last winter, the Federal Trade Commission ruled on a petition alleging deceptive trade practices against Green Mountain Power.
Carlson issued GMP’s response: “We are pleased that the FTC has declined to open an investigation into this meritless claim.”
Meritless claim?
Well, the FTC never came out and said that the claim has merit. But it found that GMP had not leveled with its customers, and in effect ordered it to do so lest the commission “take further action.”
The complaint, in other words, was hardly frivolous, as the FTC saw it, and seemed to have some merit.
Carlson was not lying. She’s an honest person. But she was spinning. That’s her job. She’s not a reporter any more. She’s a flack. It’s not a dishonorable profession. Many fine people are flacks. They should not be hosting television interview programs.
It would be nice to report that Groschner now understands this. But that may not be the case. Interviewed Thursday, she wouldn’t agree that it would have been a conflict of interest for Carlson to host the show, saying that, “the perception of conflict is often in the eye of the beholder.”
Asked whether she was surprised that journalists and others, including former Gov. Howard Dean, found the choice of Carlson to be a conflict, Groschner said, “I was actually very pleasantly engaged by the public discussion. It pointed out to me that people really care about Vermont PBS and our particular niche in public media.”
Well, yes, many people do care. Still, that, too, sounded an awful lot like spin, like trying to avoid candidly acknowledging that she’d just gotten her head handed to her because she made a poor decision.
Again, Groschner appears to be a very decent person in a very tough job. She just took over in February, and soon thereafter the state decided to cut its contribution to PBS. It’s easy to see why she thought a show hosted by Carlson, still highly regarded for her years at Channel 3 and a very appealing personality, would be a winner for PBS.
Furthermore, Vermont PBS is not primarily a news operation. It employs no reporters and puts on no actual news shows.
But then it’s not entirely not a news operation, either. It conducts interviews with officials and candidates, provides live coverage of some of the governor’s news conferences, and hosts the valuable Vermont This Week program (on which, full disclosure, the scribbler of these words sometimes appears).
Groschner is not a journalist. She’s a lawyer with a strong interest and background in the arts. Still, Vermont PBS is enough of a news station to hope that the person who runs it gets what it is that journalists do.
