Media Watchdog Eric Boehlert blasts out of the gate this morning with an incisive critique of a longstanding, problematic relationship between NPR and Fox News. Please go to Eric’s post “According to its ethics code, NPR still
has a problem” at MediaMattersForAmerica to read the entire story, which he has been covering for several years. The elements of the story are complex and the implications of the story are quite damning.
A Problem of Brandividuals
In addition to many other important points Boehlert raises about news vs. politicized rhetoric, about the politics that deter NPR from right action, and more, the NPR vs. Fox “News” conflict demonstrates the downside of Brandividuals.
Brandividuals are employees who represent their personal reputations/brands as well as the organization’s reputation/brand to establish their expertise and credibility. As employees, brandividuals are effective because they draw on either their personal brand, their organization’s brand, or both, to establish their relationship with stakeholders.
InAuthentic Ethical Commitment by the Organization
At the meta-level is NPR’s ethical problem. Boehlert outlines how NPR, an organization with well-defined non-partisan identity and a clear ethics policy, allows two of its well-known journalists to appear regularly on Fox “news” programs as paid contributors. These two journalists, Mara Liasson and Juan Williams, are usually identified as NPR correspondents when they appear on Fox News.
Boehlert takes NPR to task for allowing this ongoing violation of its own ethics polices:
Public broadcasting guidelines clearly state that when appearing on outside programs “journalists should not express views they would not air in their role as an NPR journalist.” And, “They should not participate in shows electronic forums, or blogs that encourage punditry and speculation rather than fact-based analysis.”
The activity of these two brandividuals, Liasson and Williams, violates their main and original employer’s ethics policy. Yet, their employer is doing little to resolve this problem. This raises the question:
Is NPR really committed to being an ethical news organization? Is NPR being authentic?
Lack of Accountability & Responsibility by the Employees
Boehlert emphasizes the responsibility of NPR for the behavior of its own employees. Yet, in addition to the organization’s reluctance to act responsibly, we also see a lack of responsibility by the employees.
Consider this situation from the perspective of brandividualism and the ongoing challenge of balancing of the individual’s personal brand/reputation and the reputation of the organization that employs them:
The brandividuals owe their professional skill development, in part, to NPR.
Both Liasson and Williams have earned their high profiles through their employment relationship with NPR. Were it not for their employment by NPR and the cultivation of their journalistic skills within the NPR professional community, they might not have become the well-skilled journalists they are.
The brandividuals owe their national name recognition, in part, to NPR.
Both Liasson and Williams earned their high profiles through the significant, national exposure they received on the NPR network. Were it not for this significant exposure, they would not have become high-profile enough for Fox to want to hire them.
Self-promotional behavior by these brandividuals is damaging NPR’s reputation.
Both Liasson and Williams are earning additional name recognition and additional money by appearing on Fox “News”, by representing themselves as NPR employees. They are trading on the reputation of NPR for their own career advancement.
Worse, in this case their personal individual career advancement is not independent of NPR’s reputation.
By having NPR employees appear on Fox “News” programs, Fox “News” is able to devalue the brand of its “news” competitor NPR. Every time these NPR journalists appear on Fox “News” as ‘journalists’, they diminish and damage the other brand (NPR) that they (also) supposedly represent.
Brandividuals are not being paid for the ‘value’ they bring.
Both Liasson and Williams ‘add value’ to Fox “News”. But, I’ll bet my totebag that they are not being paid any kind of premium by allowing Fox “News” to free-ride on NPR’s reputation for ethical, balanced journalism. Although Fox “News” gets the halo affect of association by having “the same” journalists as the real news organization, Fox “News” is probably not paying either contributor for this particular “added value”.
[Note, Boehlert explains how the brandividuals’ association with Fox News might allow NPR to avoid some criticism from the far-right. So, one could argue that the brandividuals’ appearance on Fox “News” has some value to NPR.]
Can Anyone’s Brand Reputation Be Saved?
Boehlert takes NPR to task, arguing rightly that NPR should uphold its own ethics policy, either by firmly prohibiting NPR employees to appear as regular contributors on Fox or by asking these journalists to resign from NPR.
And what about the brandividuals themselves?
- Shouldn’t Liasson and/or Williams feel more responsible to NPR, and more responsible for NPR’s reputation?
- Shouldn’t these brandividuals act responsibility, either sever their ties with Fox “News” or resign from NPR?
- Shouldn’t Liasson and/or Williams feel more responsible to their own personal brands as journalists, and chose either to protect their personal reputations for professional journalism by severing their ties with Fox “News”?
- Alternatively, should they try to change their personal brands from “journalist” to “opinion-vendor”, by resigning from NPR and upping their profile on Fox “News”?
If you were these brandividuals, what would you do?
See also:
What’s your *personal* ROI as a Brandividual?
How are Brandividuals special?
Why We Want Brandividuals on Social Media
[Disclosure: My brother-in-law appears on NPR as a humorist. Eric Boehlert is a Montclair neighbor. ]