The email began this way:
Rotary International (www.rotary.org) can cover travel costs for a writer who secures an assignment with a top-tier U.S./global media outlet to write about its global humanitarian work. Example: Travel with Oregon Rotarian Nancy Hughes and her team to visit a stove factory they help to establish near Antigua, Guatemala between June 18–27.
They tell me Guatemala is lovely in June…
The offer is apparently being tendered by the public relations firm GolinHarris on behalf of Rotary. The email goes on to explain why the stove project is important, the number of lives that can be saved by better stoves, and so forth.
I'm all for it. Who's against saving lives?
What I'm not for is to have sources pay for coverage. A reporter's obligation is to present what he or she learns to readers, viewers, or listeners fairly and honestly. The obligation is to the news consumers, not to the sources. Maybe the stove project is being horribly mismanaged. Maybe money is being siphoned off by local politicians or the military. Or maybe not. But a reporter who wants to find out can't be a paid member of the team. He or she has to be independent.
So while Guatemala might be lovely in June (or awful; I certainly don't know), reporters would do better to get there on their own nickel, not Rotary's. Let's hope that Rotary is disappointed because nobody signs up. And, what the heck, let's hope for more: that it drops the offer.
-Paul Raeburn
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