Friday, February 06, 2009

FAQs About Me: Why ethics probes rarely public

Part of an occasional series about yours truly.

Q. In an rare disclosure, Gannett revealed the outcome of its inquiry into your ethics violations complaint against CEO Craig Dubow -- but added that "it's not our practice to report back to those who lodge ethics complaints.'' Why? Is it because they get so many?
A. Maybe it is because this is one of the few cases they took seriously, given its high profile. I say that for two reasons. I've been given confidential company documents showing how Gannett appears to have handled a complaint against one of its most powerful executives (now retired).

Also, while Corporate may not disclose results to those who file complaints, it had no problem with Dubow smugly reporting the outcome to 40,000 employees during last Friday's audiocast. That is not a company that treats calls to the ethics hotline seriously.

Got a question? Leave it in the comments section, below. You can also e-mail FAQs About Me via gannettblog[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.

5 comments:

  1. Several years ago, a news employee in Louisville allegedly violated an ethics policy -- nothing criminal, but a lapse of professional behavior that should have resulted in a suspension.
    Instead, the employee was fired.
    More than that, the editor considered it his duty to write a column reporting to readers the violation, the employee's name and the dismissal -- I suppose to show how righteous and morally superior he was.
    Yet I have never seen the same forthrightness used concerning those in executive positions.
    I guess rank has its privileges.

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  2. Something similar happened where I worked. An editor used column space in the paper to "spank" an employee, in the name of ethics. It was so very distasteful.

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  3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  4. I certainly admire her for doing her job and not ignoring the complaint.

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  5. It is nice to know that even frivolous complaints get the lookover by the powers that be. It's good to have someone wasting their time on these kinds of dumb things.

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