Don't Be Evil - Restoring the Public Trust in Business, Politics and the Media

Don't Be Evil - restoring the public trust in business, politics and the media


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			Poynter Google's Ten Things Conflict of Interest

Pravda v. Google - Spot the Difference - 8/06/2005 09:52:00 AM

In both cases, the message is clear. Journalists had better watch what they say -- if they offend the powers that be, they'll be cut off.

News Item #1**

MOSCOW -- Russia's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday it will not renew permission for ABC-TV to operate in the country after the network broadcast an interview with a notorious Chechen warlord. In a statement, the ministry said ABC would be considered "undesirable" by all Russian state agencies because of an interview with Shamil Basayev, which was broadcast last week on "Nightline."

- The Associated Press, Tuesday, August 2, 2005

News Item #2

CNET on Friday reported "Google representatives have instituted a policy of not talking with CNET News reporters until July 2006 in response to privacy issues raised by a previous story." ... the CNET report published some personal information about Google's CEO Eric Schmidt -- his salary; his neighborhood, some of his hobbies and political donations -- all obtained through Google searches ... Schmidt is officially Google's chief champion and defender, and has publicly said that there has to be a trade-off between privacy concerns and functionality. He has brought up Google's corporate motto, "Don't Be Evil" in those defenses.

- CNN, August 5, 2005

** Update September 6, 2005 9:13 PM - The Washington Post link for "News Item #1," above, no longer works. I found another Washington Post article here that covers the same territory, but it does not match the article I originally quoted. It appears that the Associated Press which wrote the original is expiring older content, perhaps because they charge for articles more than 7 days old on their website.

Battelle and transparency - 8/02/2005 05:43:00 AM

John Battelle screwed up. He wrote an article about Mike Homer, CEO of Kontiki, which was published in Business 2.0. Homer then invested in Battelle's startup. And Battelle didn't mention the potential conflict of interest in the article.

Battelle sets a good example of how to handle mistakes online -- acknowledge and memorialize. I'm sure Battelle is embarassed about the whole thing and wishes it never happened. But does he flush the problem down the memory hole? No, he acknowledges the error and potential conflict in a note on the article itself, and writes a 400-word post to explain and memorialize the issue:

Now, Mike's investment was not directly connected to the column which ran in Business 2.0, coming after it was edited and sent to the magazine, but thanks to the lag time in publication of a monthly magazine, it sure looks bad. I should have realized this, but I didn't, at least not until it was too late for the magazine to note the apparent conflict in the column.

This was a stupid mistake on my part, and I am sorry about it. The magazine is running a clarification in this month's issue ...

I intend to be as transparent as I can afford to be about the company and its intentions over the next few months as I struggle to get it up and running. In other words, if you are going to make mistakes, may as well make them in public - they get corrected faster that way.

Anybody doing meaningful work will make mistakes. The Don't Be Evil way to handle mistakes is to acknowledge and memorialize - not try to bury them in the memory hole. In short, be transparent.

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