Ethics and hot dogs

The only thing I like more than hot dogs are free hot dogs. I’ve gotten plenty of those in the media room covering the University of Detroit Mercy’s basketball team for the past three years. But Kenny Irby of the Poynter Institute today asked our class to consider whether accepting free food is ethical. It’s something I’ve never thought much about, but after Irby’s talk, I’ve come away with a different view. It’s not fair for me (or any journalist) to accept special privileges from teams we are trying to objectively cover. Unless something directly pertains to our ability to do our job, we shouldn’t accept it. Even though the food being offered may be pretty basic stuff, the perception among the public could be negative. Perception is key since journalists rely heavily on their reputations. All we have is our name and we should look to avoid anything that could tarnish it, no matter how inconsequential it may seem. Looks like I’ll be brown-bagging it to the next Titans' home game.