Friday, July 20, 2012

Big Al | A financial disclosure you don't see here

Testing the bounds of journalism ethics, retired Gannett Chairman and CEO Al Neuharth praises one of his current employers in his weekly USA Today column this morning -- without disclosing that relationship. Freedom Forum and its Newseum have become "a favorite gathering place" in Washington, he says.

Last year, Freedom Forum paid Neuharth, 88, $225,000 in wages plus $286,003 for expenses -- more than in any other year since 2000, according to public IRS tax returns.

Freedom Forum is the original Gannett Foundation.

Related: Gannett's ethics policy. Plus: The newspaper division's policy.

12 comments:

  1. How do you rack up almost $300,000 in expenses? Does he charge $500 an hour for a ride to the airport? $1,000 for a fax?? Ay ay ay!!

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  2. It's good to be a one (half) percenter!

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  3. 7:19 He doesn't travel couch. And I suspect he thinks Groupon is a type of fish.

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  4. And Jim, he probably thinks Deal Chicken is a card game, lol! Is that twice-size statue of him still at the entrance to Fla. Yesterday?

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  5. That's so cool. Live it the right way.

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  6. Another pig at the trough.

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  7. Another example of an arrogant, egomaniacal son of a bitch whose reach far exceeds his grasp.

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  8. What a pig. No other word for it. Fabulously rich. Near the end. And yet just can't stop himself from sticking his snout in the trough.
    Would elbow aside a guy who needs the paycheck just so he can get a little more to add to his pile. What a repulsive, greedy pig. He should be ashamed.

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  9. Maybe one of his boys at The Freedom Forum was the ghost writer.

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  10. He also adopted several children yet rejects his own biological daughter. What kind of person does that?

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  11. His hangers-on keep trying to crown him as a historic figure in the newspaper business. He's a footnote.

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  12. Al,
    Retire. Please.

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Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."

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