Kaus takes another swing at the Bob Greene situation and makes a very poor argument. Kaus compares the Chicago Tribune not releasing all of the details to Nixon. This is an absurd comparison. Nixon was President and had a public duty. The Chicago Tribune is a private company with fiduciary responsibility to its stock holders. This means that personnel decisions are generally private matters that are kept private to avoid legal liability.
Second, it has a relationship with its reader based on its credibility. I’d prefer to believe that the paper frowns upon reporters sleeping with subjects of stories. Call me old fashioned.
Third, this respects the privacy of the woman and Greene. We know the relevant details from Kass’s column. This doesn’t stop other reporters at other institutions from looking into the issue, but the Tribune has been clear on the standards it expects from its employees to its readers. That is all they should be expected to divulge barring some ACTUAL information that contradicts any of this.
Kaus then takes on Jim Warren’s argument about special privileges and says it is absurd. It is not. A journalist in the position of Greene has the ability to use that position to take advantage of a high school student. And he did. That privilege may not be some formal privilege, but most people understand it and understand using that privilege is wrong.
The Tribune has a code of conduct as Don Wycliff points out. Greene violated that code of conduct.
As Kass points out:
“I don’t care about sex lives of reporters or politicians. That’s not my business or yours either, as long as they’re grown-ups and as long as they don’t use the institutions they represent to close the deal.”
This was an abuse of power.
Was Clinton an abuse of power? Yes. Being fired (or accepting a resignation in this case) from a newspaper is a lot different than removing the President of the United States.