There they go again
Over at the Deseret Morning News, LaVarr Webb, Jim Wall and Jay Evensen obviously aren't reading Out of Context. Or, at least, they've decided we're too insignificant to matter.
So we'll raise our issue again.
News columnist LaVarr Webb today once again spends part of his space lobbying the Legislature to put an accelerated transit funding program (sales tax hike ballot authority) on the agenda of a special session slated for later this month.
Nothing wrong with that -- columnists are supposed to be opinionated.
But the problem here is Webb is specifically paid by clients of his lobbying business and patrons of his web site Utahpolicy.com to advocate this position.
What is lacking here is a clear disclosure of Webb's conflicts of interest -- something Morning News readers (and I count myself as one) deserve.
The disclosure at the end of the column simply states he is a lobbyist and "does consulting work in the transportation industry."
As I pointed out in a posting here Aug. 13, there's more to disclose.
Webb is on the policy committee of the 2015 Transportation Alliance, which was formed to push the accelerated transit plan using a sales tax increase and has lobbied for a special session of the Legislature. Webb's membership is listed as a representative of transportation consulting firm HNTB, which was hired to do the study used as the basis for the Alliance's arguments.
Webb also is a paid lobbyist for HNTB, and the company sponsors a regular paid feature on his utahpolicy.com site.
The Alliance also regularly pays for utahpolicy.com articles and Webb is registered as a lobbyist for the "Transportation Management Association," which has the same address, down to the suite number, as the 2015 Transportation Alliance.
Yet another of Webb's lobby clients, and a regular sponsor of paid articles on utahpolicy.com, is Zions Bank. Zions Bank CEO Scott Anderson is on the 2015 Alliance executive committee.
Wall, News publisher and also a member of the 2015 Alliance executive committee, may think this is nit-picking. But what about Evensen, long a stalwart of the Society of Professional Journalists?
-- Dan Harrie
So we'll raise our issue again.
News columnist LaVarr Webb today once again spends part of his space lobbying the Legislature to put an accelerated transit funding program (sales tax hike ballot authority) on the agenda of a special session slated for later this month.
Nothing wrong with that -- columnists are supposed to be opinionated.
But the problem here is Webb is specifically paid by clients of his lobbying business and patrons of his web site Utahpolicy.com to advocate this position.
What is lacking here is a clear disclosure of Webb's conflicts of interest -- something Morning News readers (and I count myself as one) deserve.
The disclosure at the end of the column simply states he is a lobbyist and "does consulting work in the transportation industry."
As I pointed out in a posting here Aug. 13, there's more to disclose.
Webb is on the policy committee of the 2015 Transportation Alliance, which was formed to push the accelerated transit plan using a sales tax increase and has lobbied for a special session of the Legislature. Webb's membership is listed as a representative of transportation consulting firm HNTB, which was hired to do the study used as the basis for the Alliance's arguments.
Webb also is a paid lobbyist for HNTB, and the company sponsors a regular paid feature on his utahpolicy.com site.
The Alliance also regularly pays for utahpolicy.com articles and Webb is registered as a lobbyist for the "Transportation Management Association," which has the same address, down to the suite number, as the 2015 Transportation Alliance.
Yet another of Webb's lobby clients, and a regular sponsor of paid articles on utahpolicy.com, is Zions Bank. Zions Bank CEO Scott Anderson is on the 2015 Alliance executive committee.
Wall, News publisher and also a member of the 2015 Alliance executive committee, may think this is nit-picking. But what about Evensen, long a stalwart of the Society of Professional Journalists?
-- Dan Harrie
3:28 PM
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9 Comments:
Webb lacks ethics big time. His Utah Policy Daily is out there as a public service, and yet it is really just another Republican spin mechanism.
Republicans and ethics are simply lost in space.
Harrie usually gets things wrong, but he gets this one right.
Contrary to first anonymous comment, this has nothing to do with Republicans and everything to do with ethical problems at the Deseret Morning News. Columnists and reporters are opinionated, but Webb's column should be labeled by the disclaimer "This is a paid political advertisement" or "I am LaVarr Webb, a lobbyist for companies that will make tons of money off designing and building roads and transit lines, and I approved this message."
As a political junkie, UtahPolicy.com is must reading. But I do take into account Webb's ideological and financially-motivated biases.
UtahPolicy.com's selective digesting of other Utah political blog postings is revealing. I noticed UP didn't digest the Libertarians' Liberty for Utahns blog when the topics were sex and right-wing authoritarians, but has included every other L4U blog.
UP's new "Utah's Top Issues" is another feature to be suspicious of. Webb's corporate clients will probably get top billing, while concerns from the citizenry will be deemed irrelevant.
Isn't this called "payola" elsewhere?
And it only gets worse for Mr Webb.
Think back to the last campaign and the newsletter Webb sends out. He ran a banner for John Jacob and posted anything and everything he possibly could that made Jacob look good. I know that early on Lavar Webb's Exoro was running Jacob's campaign.
Now we see a similar trend with Mitt Romney. Every morning Webb ensures his readers that Romney is the choice for Republicans with a dose of Romney stories. What about McCain, Giulianni, or others? Nope, Webb hasn't signed up with their campaigns.
His newsletter is convenient though completely biased. And as a Republican I see it less as a tool of Republican politics (which I can see why people would see it that way) and much more about his cash paying clients.
So long as Webb is going to use this and his weekly column to make money he should list all of his clients with both. And if he is not, well at least the Deseret News should dump his article. Or they should allow other lobbyists to promote their clients with equal print space.
It is an Republican issue, but not every Republican's issue, just guys like Webb who will put Steve Urquhart top of the list, top of the morning, whenever Steve posts. This is the same for the Senate Site, and John D.
On the other hand he simply ignores (or his son Golden ignores) great posts by Christian Burridge, One Utah, The Utah Amicus, Pete Ashdown, blah, blah, blah, unless they see an opportunity to make these terrific blogger's look bad.
Its really too bad, and it shows a lack of character from UPD, and it shows that Webb, like many Republicans are trying to downplay the beginning of the end, as well as the fact that Democrats have more interesting and fun blogs.
"Webb lacks ethics big time...."
This statement unfairly mischaracterizes Mr. Webb. Mr. Webb is an individual with ethics and integrity, a fact to which anyone who knows him personally will attest. I make this claim as a partisan Democrat. As one who worked in the same office space as Mr. Webb, I learned to appreciate his approach and integrity in policy matters. He simply does his job well. The real issue lies in how ones views UPD: as a legitimate provider of news, or, as a blog. I argue it is the latter.
The problem isn't with Mr. Webb's ethics. The problem lies with those who believe that UPD must mirror major news providers that strive to conform to the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics. But I would argue that UPD falls under the same code of ethics that applies to independent bloggers, which is at most supported by some tacit codification. Because access to UPD is free, and because UPD has a liberal subscription policy (anyone can subscribe), UPD should be thought of as a service. (Ever wonder how early Mr. Webb gets up every morning so you can read UPD?) In the true sense of the meaning of “weblog,” UPD compiles then logs the URLs from a litany of Utah sources, and then posts those URLs as its own blog. To be angry that UPD censures its own content is not unlike being angry at the blogger who is opinionated.
As for Mr. Webb’s alleged conflicts of interest, it would be wise to remember that Mr. Webb dawns many hats. On Sundays when his column is published, yes, he is a journalist and ought to conform to SPJ’s Code of Ethics. Most other times, Mr. Webb is a private consultant whose job it is to represent his clients. His private job probably doesn’t require that he publish UPD, but, again as a service, Mr. Webb funds and puts together, along with a team of helpers who he pays, UPD. One who receives UPD every weekday morning would be hard pressed to admit that he or she doesn’t appreciate a free compendium of Utah’s policy news.
Is Mr. Webb a partisan Republican? Yes. Does he represent his clients zealously? Yes. Does he have the right to choose the content of UPD? Yes. Does he do all these things effectively? Yes. But one can’t fault the man for that.
This post has been removed by a blog administrator.
It is LaVarr's website Darrell, and he has the right to put anything he chooses on it.
Maybe its the name of his site that is confusing you.
I agree that UPD slants to the right, but I appreciate the service and read it everyday with full knowledge that all Utahns are not created equal on UPD.
oooh ... and now either because of their vindictive Republican nature or just to show that they aren't slaves to the laissez faire Libertarians, UPD didn't link to their latest blog criticizing the UEA.
Tough break, Libertarians! 8-p
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