By Steve Rhodes
The Beachwood Media Company finds itself in several ethical conundra, or rather, the potential appearance of ethical conundra, so I thought I should post this disclosure statement.
1. The Beachwood Media Company strongly desires significant investment. Discussion with potential investors include fairly obvious individuals including those who have various political connections both locally and nationally. The Beachwood has never allowed – and never will allow – these business discussions to influence its editorial content.
To allay concerns, however, we hereby announce we would like individuals of the libertarian, conservative, Republican, Democratic, liberal, Green, socialist, communist, fascist and anarchic variety to invest equally in order to eliminate suspicion.
2. The Beachwood Reporter sometimes links to websites and authors whom it would like to seduce into business partnerships due to the quality of their work. The links, however, are given out only due to merit. In fact, the BR has such a commitment to combat blogrolling that our blogroll is well-hidden, rarely updated, and exists without reciprocal requests on our part.
3. Due to the bootstrap nature of this venture, Steve Rhodes handles almost all aspects of the business and thus tends to know the identities of those who make donations to the company through our membership program. Steve Rhodes feels uncomfortable about this and would rather not know. Contributors who are in the business are given no favor.
To allay concerns, Steve Rhodes would love to have a business partner who handles the money.
4. Steve Rhodes is now also blogging for NBC5 [this site discontinued; now posting at NBCChicago.com]. This comes with no obligation to favor NBC5 either there or at the Beachwood. (second item) no longer working for NBCChicago.com, which apparently doesn’t have an ethics policy.
5. Steve Rhodes appears frequently on Chicago Tonight and The Week in Review, as well as other television and radio shows. He also occasionally gives interviews to print publications. Appearing on these shows offers no immunity from Rhodes’s occasional criticism, nor results in Rhodes’s occasional praise.
6. Steve Rhodes is a Carol Marin fan. He often links to her Sun-Times column, appears at times on her Chicago Tonight panels, and now is an NBC5 colleague of sorts. Still, Carol Marin gets no immunity, and Rhodes has even dared to disagree with her views at times, though he has been slightly scared when doing so because she usually has it right.
Steve Rhodes is no longer a Carol Marin fan; ethical and reporting blindspots that have revealed themselves are too much to bear. But that doesn’t mean I won’t link to her if her work merits it.
7. The Beachwood Reporter solicits and accepts advertising. There is no connection between advertising and editorial, and Steve Rhodes would love nothing more than a business partner who can shield him from all sides of that part of the operation. Additionally, the Beachwood reserves the right to deny advertising for reasons including taste and integrity.
8. The Beachwood only occasionally solicits and publishes comments. The Beachwood believes that comments should be moderated to prevent smears, bad taste, hidden agendas and quality control failures from making their way onto the site. The Beachwood does not have time to moderate comments, though, so comments are accepted via our Tipline and Contact forms, as well as personal e-mail. In most cases, comments must be accompanied by real, full names to be considered for publication. Exceptions occur at the discretion of the Beachwood, but mainly involve folks who could face retribution if outed.
9. The Beachwood only occasionally publishes stories using pseudonyms for author names, again to control for quality and accountability. Exceptions occur at the discretion of the Beachwood, but mainly involve folks who could face retribution if outed.
10. The tone of this statement is not meant to convey a frivolous attitude toward ethics. To the contrary, ethics in the media is a primary concern of The Beachwood Media Company and has been a life-long interest of Steve Rhodes. It’s just his way of addressing concerns that may arise with readers moving forward. Please don’t hesitate to send feedback and suggestions to Rhodes at srhodes@beachwoodreporter.com.
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Last updated 12/15/2019.
Posted on May 10, 2008