Potential for conflict? Make that a double

The Daily Kos, an entertaining, Democratic-leaning Web site, recently announced that the Bangor Daily News’ executive editor, Mark Woodward, is married to Bridget Woodward, who works in Republican Sen. Susan Collins’ Bangor office, where she tracks down residents’ lost Social Security checks and helps seniors figure out Medicare Part D.

Whether you believe this to be news depends on which team you are rooting for in the 2008 senatorial contest between Collins and Rep. Tom Allen.

Mark Woodward reports that Bridget has worked for Collins for 10 years, though she will retire this month, and that he was press secretary for Collins for a brief time in 1997. Daily Kos readers want these sorts of details out there: “How can we inform the people of Maine about it?” one post asks. “You know darn well that the BDN won’t tell anyone!!!”

Well, of course not.

Contemplation of the Woodward marriage follows an instance of tracking, where one party tries to provoke an opponent by hiring a kid to poke a camera in the face of the opponent whenever possible. Democrats recently did it to Collins; newspapers such as this one and the Portland Press Herald put the story on their front pages, drawing a generally negative public reaction, and suddenly the tracking party needed to change the subject.

Talking about the messenger is one way to do that, but does the above explanation about the Woodwards fully expose the ways in which the local press unwittingly or otherwise is entwined with local politics? Not at all. The potential for conflict of interest is no halfway matter here at 491 Main, and the proof of that resides at our special assignments desk, where the editor in charge of political coverage is Tim Allen. That would be Tom Allen’s cousin (first cousin, for those with a conspiratorial streak).

At this point in one of those earnest community journalism columns, in which an editor pretends to have a conversation with readers to show how hard he’s working to better their lives, the editor would assert that conflicts of interest in journalism are inescapable. Our spouses have to work somewhere; our relatives will always feel the urge to do something useful with their lives, and some of them will turn to politics as a way to get over that feeling.

The question is, how are these potential conflicts recognized and held in check, especially during a high-pressure race such as this one? A couple of thoughts: In the big small town of Maine, trying to hide something like a personal connection in politics is pointless – too many people already know it. In this case, Allen and Woodward have been open about their connections; naturally, both campaigns in this race have known about them. If not all BDN readers know, it is because the election is still well over a year away and the editors tell me they thought they could wait on an announcement until more people were paying attention.

Not when the perception of skullduggery becomes useful.

Allen and Woodward each has more than 30 years’ experience in journalism and both have succeeded based on their reputations; they know they have a professional stake in being, ahem, fair and balanced. You would hear about it if they weren’t: Fortunately, a sufficient number of online critics are eager to announce our shortcomings.

Most important, neither editor has anything to do with the opinions of this newspaper – a duty of the editorial page editors and the publisher. (To save bloggers some time: The BDN has always endorsed Collins and always endorsed Allen. Enlightening, yes?) Just as the news department does not direct editorial opinion, it also blithely ignores the excellent story suggestions from opinion writers – my latest idea for an investigative piece on whether Maine politicians have used the restrooms at the Minneapolis airport, for instance, went nowhere. Newspapers separate news and opinion exactly for the reason that has come up in this race.

It is a constant of newsrooms and a fact here that all members of Congress, or their supporters, suspect at some time the local newspaper is favoring another politician at their expense. Probably they are right on occasion – woe unto any news editor who stoops to counting the inches of type allotted to each elected official. But even if an editor measured out each word of negative or positive coverage, the suggestion of a bias would remain as long as two people can look at the same set of facts and draw different conclusions.

A newspaper has a responsibility to build in safeguards against conflicts, and one way it does this is to announce their potential. Another way, if it comes to it, is for editors to recuse themselves from covering certain stories to deflect even the potential of a potential conflict of interest.

Not that this will satisfy everyone. Over the years, this paper has been accused of favoring Republicans and later Democrats; now perhaps it will be assumed to favor both simultaneously. Though if we’re able to pull that one off, you know darn well we won’t tell anyone.

Todd Benoit is the editorial page editor of the Bangor Daily News. Readers may contact him at tbenoit@bangor

dailynews.net.