Alex Koppleman, writing for Salon on 6/3/08,
commented on a post by Huffington Post blogger Mayhill Fowler who questioned former
President Bill Clinton while campaigning on behalf of his wife. Traveling as
part of Huffington Post’s citizen journalism project, “Off the Bus,” Flower had
the presence of mind to position herself to ask a question of Clinton as he
was shaking hands on a rope line greeting after a campaign event. Mainstream media has, for the most part, been overtly critical
of bloggers who are often untrained in the protocols and standards of the trade
as practiced by mainstream media’s ‘access’ journalists.
Fowler's Faux Pas, which is what it appeared to be, was to ask a
leading question of the former president at a public event. Ms. Fowler failed to identify herself as a
journalist at an event where Clinton expected to be among supporters, not
journalists. Fowler, an unpublished author and part time political blogger, may have been nervous or unprepared
when her opportunity arose. Bill Clinton being a seasoned public relations master should probably have known
better.
Two things raise questions as to Ms. Fowler's ethical conduct as a journalist:
1) Fowler used unfair
circumstances to blindside Obama in April 2008. Anyone can slip up occasionally,
but lowering the ethical bar in order to grab a scoop hurts journalism, and
undermines the credibility of the profession as a whole. 2) It appears that
Mayhill Fowler couched her bait for Clinton in a way that suggested that she
was sympathetic to the ‘hatchet job’ somebody did on Clinton in Vanity Fair.
Shortly after, she dropped Purdam’s name and mentioned that he’s Dee Dee Meyers
husband. If Ms. Fowler would compromise her journalistic ethics for a
titillating trifle, what breach would she be willing to make for a story of
consequence?
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