Selling your principles

[Yid (Israel)]

A friend of mine's career got me thinking about this sort of things lately.
He's a Sport Journo, a young one and just starting out. Pretty much fresh out of college he got a job covering local sports in one of the newspapers, after that he worked in a website as a more senior journalist and after that another newspaper, so far so good.
Recently he accepted an offer to become pretty much a senior journo (to cover exclusively one of the biggest teams, Hapoel Tel Aviv) for this website I'll call X. X is a pretty big thing here, they've got a radio show and a TV channel along with the website. But X is also very infamous for being a yellow rag, for covering only parts of the stories depends on who's the reporter's friends with, or most of the time-who's the lady who run X is friends with, etc.
Me and him used to joke a lot about the low quality of X, he more than once posted their mistakes or examples of their ridiculous low-level journalism on his facebook page etc. He was very adamant about how that lady who runs X is horrible and is just bringing the level of sport journalism in this country to the ground.
So now he got that offer, of more money, more coverage, a chance to be on TV a bit, some radio time, and he took it. Is it right to say he sold his principles? I actually hope I wouldn't have done the same in his situation, but I don't know. Maybe it's just his profession, and that's one of the reasons I won't go into journalism or sports journalism for that matter even though I love football and I would have loved to have that as my job (as player probably won't happen).

What do you think?

 

[WookieD]

Judge him once you see his articles for X

 

[scaramanga]

It is better to influence from within than to mock from without.

 

[Yid (Israel)]

It is better to influence from within than to mock from without.

isn't that just an excuse to tell yourself to make you sleep better at night after selling out?
And if his choice was to accept that job or get out of the buisness, does it matter? that's like no choice, but still...

 

[WookieD]

I think you're disappearing up your own arse a bit here mate. Have you actually asked him why he took the job? I would imagine that he thinks (maybe delusionally) that he can change the practices and ethics of the place but you've immediately chosen to think the worst of him... I'd be tinkled at you for being so judgemental without asking me first!

 

[Howard Webb]

mans got to work.

 

[Yid (Israel)]

I think you're disappearing up your own arse a bit here mate. Have you actually asked him why he took the job? I would imagine that he thinks (maybe delusionally) that he can change the practices and ethics of the place but you've immediately chosen to think the worst of him... I'd be tinkled at you for being so judgemental without asking me first!

Why do you think I've not talked to him about it? He is not delusional to think he'll change everything by just being there. His attitude is just, "man's got to work, it's a great opportunity business wise" etc. he actually acknowledges that he sold up a bit, I think. I'm trying to think on this subject in a wider perspective than just this example, would have I done the same in a different but similar scenario...

 

[DanishWhite]

Difficult to say.

Personally I'd can safely say I'd dismiss jobs, if the working climate (boss etc) was wrong. I have also dismissed

Let's just say if Arsenal approached me to do some paperwork for them. Would I do it ? Probably. At least for a while.

 

[WookieD]

Ah well, you never actually mentioned the fact that you had spoken to him, just a lot of judgemental statements about the whole thing. Personally, I'm a strongly principled person and have actually paid for them by not offering bungs for business. So I'm firmly in the camp of principles. To that end I wouldn't have applied for a job at a place that I felt marginalised me. I could, however, work there if I thought my own work wouldn't be affected and I could boost my career whilst bringing some light to the darkness of poor journalism. Like I said originally, judge him by the quality of his work as to whether he has personally sold out.

 

[Superted]

Let him be. He's just a journo, who cares. No one's life is in danger, no harm can come. If he's a doctor who then goes to work for a tobacco company, or a social worker who then goes into politics and has to cut service to social services, then yeah that's a quandary.

This? Let him have his fun.

 

[Gifter]

Personally I would never work for alot of companies/sectors.

I've turned down work before when I did not have any (for British American Tobacco), and smoked at that time, because I felt it was morally reprehensible for me to do so.

For me, liking my reflection (not in a narcissistic way) is much more important than some extra financial gratification, if I am blessed with grandchildren I would like to not feel ashamed when they ask what I did for work.

 

[scaramanga]

Personally I would never work for alot of companies/sectors.

I've turned down work before when I did not have any (for British American Tobacco), and smoked at that time, because I felt it was morally reprehensible for me to do so.

For me, liking my reflection (not in a narcissistic way) is much more important than some extra financial gratification, if I am blessed with grandchildren I would like to not feel ashamed when they ask what I did for work.

I did some IT consultancy for BAT, it was wonderful. Subsidised cigarette machines on every floor, smoking allowed in most offices - long after most places had banned it even in the car parks.

 

[Howard Webb]

i did some work for Ensco. alot of my decisions are based on my direct experience of the company, if ive had a bad time with them I turn down the offer or, more politely, send them someone else - rather than being high minded I find unprofessional attitudes very easy to pass on.