Editors must watch potential conflicts, too. (A Question of Ethics).

The situation: The editorial page editor at a small city daily is approached by his fiancees brother, a partner in a law firm, about helping to produce the firm's quarterly newsletter. The editor gets approval from his publisher and starts designing, editing, and paginating the newsletter. It's not hard work and it provides a decent supplemental income. The firm keeps the editor on board even after he breaks up with the partner's sister.

Over several years, the law firm gains prominence and its partners become more politically active. One partner is appointed to the county commission. Another serves on an airport board that becomes embroiled in a high-stakes battle with the state over construction of a new airport. Other members of the firm are involved with the state trial lawyers association's effort to limit reform of the state's malpractice laws.

Suddenly, it dawns on the editor that he is in the middle of a full-blown conflict of interest. He discusses it with his publisher. The publisher says she has no problem. Is that enough? What should the editor do?

The answer: The editor already knows what to do. The situation may be completely innocent. The editor may not be advocating any position, or advocating any position more strongly than he would have if he had never done any work for this firm. He might treat the county commissioner exactly the same. But he can't know that for sure. More importantly, the public can't know that for sure.

Perhaps the best way for an editorial page editor or writer to judge the ethics of a situation he finds himself in is to imagine the editorial he would write about a public figure in a similar situation.

How much slack would you cut a legislator, for instance, who was paid to perform non-legislative work for a business that had increasingly important issues before the legislature?

The editor needs to end the business relationship with the law firm, and he should be extremely wary about any outside employment that could raise eve an appearance of impropriety--the same standard by which he judges public figures on a daily basis.

The NCEW Ethics Committee exists to help members confidentially sort through the ethical issues that we all face at one time or another. The hope for this feature is to stimulate a broader discussion of journalistic ethics, especially those specific to the editorial page. We will be presenting issues and answers or suggestions approved by the Ethics Committee. Unless otherwise noted, these will be real issues, though the names and situations may be changed in the interests of privacy. No situation will be used without the permission of the person involved.