Some decisions readers shouldn't have to make
As an IU journalism school graduate, and as a working journalist, may I comment on the Oct. 17 column by your ombudsman, Brian Hartz? What Hartz calls "one of the dirty little secrets of journalism" -- that journalists sometimes receive "perks" ranging from free movie passes to free trips -- is not exactly new. I remember heated debates years ago at the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette on whether it was "ethical" for our sports writers to get free passes to hockey games (this was not too long after Watergate, when many of us eager young journalists were wearing tan corduroy jackets with leather elbow patches in imitation of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of The Washington Post). I do not see the smaller, often innocent, perks as life-or-death matters, so long as the giver does not feel that something is owed in return, and as long as the receiver does not feel indebted. A cup of coffee or a movie pass would fit in this category.
