City Paper reporter admits buying pot from story subject
The Baltimore City Paper's Van Smith made a unique disclosure in a Mobtown Beat story on Wednesday titled "Sweet Deal." Ten years ago, the author had bought small quantities of marijuana from the subject of the story.
The "subject" was a record company owner who had pleaded guilty to drug charges.
Is this a conflict that needed to be disclosed? Smith told Jim Romenesko, who runs a popular media blog, that he had no choice. As most reporters know, the cover-up is often worse than the crime, and it would be embarrassing for it to come out from someone else that you had once bought drugs from the drug dealer you're writing about.
Here is what Van Smith told Romenesko:
"Journalistic reasons. Had to. No other options, given deadline, foreclosing possibility of someone else writing the piece instead, which would've been preferable. My long-ago interactions with the subject only dawned on me after I'd interviewed him and was writing up the part in which he poured out his guts and said he'd dealt weed for years. After giving it some thought, including trying to rationalize NOT disclosing, I realized there simply was no other way to deal with the situation."
Posted by Peter Hermann at 11:43 AM | Permalink
| Comments (2)
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system
Categories: Confronting crime, Courts and the justice system
Comments
Show me someone in this town Chris X DIDN'T sell weed to.
Posted by: Stagger Lee | March 24, 2011 3:08 PM
It has nothing to do with professional ethics. Mr Smith is out to spread his name because I doubt anyone would have much of a future with cp and he is looking beyond.
Don't want to disillusion anyone but most of the supposedly dedicated media pimps I have known were well versed in gilding the mirror of their own vanities with lipsticked pigs. This one is no exception. It makes up for his lack of journalistic talent.
Posted by: Sour Diesel NYC | March 24, 2011 10:11 PM