Journalism ethics: The firing of Ariel Helwani

In the wake of Ariel Helwani’s firing from FOX and Kenny Florian’s suspension for plagiarism, I wanted to take a moment to look at the ethics behind journalism. I’m doing this more out of curiosity than to make some kind of emphatic point. And, of course, there must be a multitude of competing factors to consider, in a much different way than the ethical requirements of doctors or lawyers where infractions are subject to discipline from a professional association.

There is no single source for journalistic ethics but different sources share many of the same principles. Here are three such sources: NPR’s Standards of Journalism, The American Society of News Editors (ASNE) Statement of Principles, and the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Code of Ethics.

Goals of Journalists

Public enlightenment, Constitutional right to freedom of expression and press, free exchange of information, and seeking the truth and reporting it are goals of the profession. ASNE elaborates on this “responsibility” in that it enables the public to “make judgments on the issues of the time,” and they reference the First Amendment throughout their Code.

Undoubtedly these goals carry a weight of seriousness and make it easy to see the natural conflicts that arise between news organizations and business organizations. The UFC and FOX are in it to make money, plain and simple. For MMA news organizations it’s a mix of carrying out the goals described above but also to make money. [But unlike the legal profession, for example, journalists do not face penalties from a higher body for their violations unless the organization they work for maintains a code of ethics itself. This is what we saw with Kenny Florian when FOX suspended him because of his admitted plagiarism.] The UFC wants to control the flow of information relating to its business. MMA journalists often report and reveal information that the UFC finds is at odds with its business. So when the UFC has in its control the ability to affect the livelihood of a journalist who is affecting their control of the information flow, they may exercise that control.

This obviously may seem dramatic, and it is to a certain degree as it compares to the events surrounding Ariel Helwani. This is because the UFC and FOX are in a business partnership. Ariel Helwani was employed part-time with FOX as a TV personality. His journalistic activities that upset the UFC were done through his employment with MMAFighting.com. So, the partnership was not thrilled that they had an employee who through his other obligations was reporting news they did not want out in the public sphere. Their decision was to fire him. But, why fire him? Firing him won’t change his journalistic activities unless the reality is that Ariel Helwani was getting access to more information because of his employment with FOX.

Put another way, Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch wrote, “ If Helwani was dropped by Fox for not being enough of a PR man for a Fox Sports partner, Fox should simply come out and say it’s not interested in journalism for its UFC product. That would be honest.” FOX did not handle this situation well by acting rashly and with little comment on the matter. They probably never should have hired him in the first place if this was their attitude towards journalism.

The Standards

Fairness and harm minimization, honesty, impartiality, accuracy, transparency, accountability, and acting independently are common standards of journalism. Independence is an interesting principle to explore because it brings up discussion of conflicts of interest. Arguably, Ariel Helwani’s simultaneous employment with FOX and SB Nation could be seen as a conflict of interest and FOX therefore fired him for what it perceived as a manifestation of this conflict.

The question to ask is whether he could appropriately serve the interests of both organizations at all times or would there be situations where he would have to choose one organization’s interests over the other’s. In the corporate world, as seen by the legal structures of the corporation and its board of directors, there are duties of loyalty that invoke this independence principle. While Ariel Helwani was merely an employee who, barring any specific contractual provisions, can be fired-at-will, FOX may reasonably have felt he was not serving their interests to the fullest. And from the point of view of journalistic ethics, it could be argued that how could he independently report news for MMAFighting while also working at FOX/UFC. It gives the appearance of impropriety.

Ultimately, Ariel Helwani’s departure from FOX is probably the best outcome when considered in the context of journalism’s ethical standards. But, again, if this was always going to be the stance of FOX then they never should have hired him in the first place, and this whole situation speaks volumes about their goals in UFC “coverage.”

*I also published this as a Fanpost at MMAFighting.com