Is Jim Miklaszewski A Buckraker?

So I’m reading Jamison Foser’s usual excellent column at Media Matters discussing why John Edwards’ $400 haircut is always in the news, and I come upon this really interesting nugget. According to the Providence Journal’s Tom Mooney, apparently, NBC Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski was paid $30,000 to give a speech for the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce, a speech in which he bashed Edwards for the haircut incident. Let’s leave aside Miklaszewski’s Bushnik ‘the enemy is patient and America has a short attention span’ wingnut rhetoric, and focus on a very specific practice going on here known in the industry as ‘buckraking’.

Buckraking is the practice whereby a journalist is paid to speak to a business or right-wing group for large sums of money, and buckraking is a serious offense (it’s also apparently against NBC’s corporate policy). <..>

Did Miklaszewski break company policy by accepting this speaking fee? It certainly would seem he did (he’s listed as a speaker for hire on speaker provider Barber and Associates’ web site). Chris Matthews fell into a bit of hot water last year for apparently accepting speaking fees from special interest corporate groups, and Rick Kaplan, then MSNBC’s President, made it clear that the policy for news anchors at NBC was that buckraking would result in firing.

Jim Miklaszewski, as an employee of NBC, is an employee of GE. GE’s code of conduct covers all companies owned by GE. It is called “The Spirit and Letter”, and takes a particularly dim view of conflicts of interest. It also prohibits the use of company resources for personal gain. He can be fired for the first offense. NBC has a corporate problem with their staff propagandists using company resources for personal gain. Last week it was Tweety using NBC to pimp for Ann Coulter - and thereby helping his own relationship with his publisher, now it’s this guy. Aside from the shame being a propaganda outlet, it looks like NBC is just doesn’t get it (as far as enforcing their ethical standards and obligations goes). Their failures just further degrade what little credibility they have left (were it not for Olbermann, they would have none).

I might suggest a campaign to contact the GE Corporate Ombudsman with complaints, providing links to this C&L thread. I am told that they take this kind of ethical breach very seriously.

Contact Info:

GE Corporate Ombudsperson at 800-227-5003
or
ombudsperson@corporate.ge.com