NEW YORK — As chairman of the NBC News Group, Cesar Conde is already busy overseeing the network’s broadcast and digital news operations, along with local affiliates of CNBC, MSNBC, Telemundo and NBC.
Yet the manager also has a second paid job. And a third – as a member of the boards of directors of Walmart and PepsiCo. The arrangement has raised a number of ethical concerns and exposes a potential blind spot for a news business that tends to be very serious about conflict – real or perceived.
CNN’s new CEO, Mark Thompson, is chairman of the board of Ancestry.com. And while Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, owner of The Washington Post, is not a journalist, the newspaper reminds readers who he is when he writes about Amazon. Former President Donald Trump has eagerly pointed out Bezos’ dual role.
A former NBC News executive, Bill Wheatley, recently questioned the veracity of Conde’s outside corporate roles, at a time when the news division’s leadership is already under fire for the hiring and quick firing — after a staff revolt — of former head of the Republican National Committee, Ronna McDaniel. as a contributor.
“It seemed to me that this was one more example of NBC management not understanding the rules by which news executives should play,” said Wheatley, who retired as executive vice president of NBC News in 2005 and has a job as a news consultant. since.
Conde served on the boards of Walmart and PepsiCo before taking over as chairman of NBC News Group in 2020. The NBC News chief made $275,018 from Walmart and $320,000 from PepsiCo in 2022, in a combination of cash and stock, according to Salary.com.
NBC declined to comment on the matter to The Associated Press.
There is no evidence that Conde has been involved in any NBC stories involving the two companies. NBC pointed to a 2021 Wall Street Journal article in which the network said it would recuse from any coverage of the companies.
In general, journalists work hard to avoid any situation where a conflict might be alleged, even if the conflict itself does not materialize: for example, have reporters written positive stories about a company involving a boss, or have they written poorly news ignored? because it might make a superior angry? Perception can be just as important as actual conflict; some journalists even go so far as to not even vote in elections that their journalism covers.
This also applies to NBC. Among other rules: The business network CNBC that Conde oversees bans its journalists — and their spouses — from owning stock for these reasons.
Refusal is a good step, Wheatley says, but it doesn’t solve the conflict.
“In an ideal world, I think news managers should avoid these types of situations,” said Jane Kirtley, a professor of media ethics and law at the University of Minnesota. If the situation cannot be avoided, it is important to make it public and make it clear that the companies will face reporting that takes place “without fear or favor,” she said.
Kelly McBride, senior vice president and ethics expert at the Poynter Institute, the leading journalism think tank, agrees that the situation is not ideal. At the same time, she says, “we don’t want executives or anyone else in journalism to be a blank slate.”
Leaders in journalism have traditionally worked their way up the ranks, but that is no longer always the route. Conde held corporate, not news, positions at Univision and Telemundo before landing his current job. CNN’s Thompson was a top executive at the BBC and The New York Times. At the latter, his greatest achievement was in business rather than journalism, leading a successful digital transformation.
CNN would not discuss whether Thompson is paid for his job at Ancestry.com. Representatives for the company, a private company that is not required to disclose salaries, did not respond to a message. The Glassdoor jobs website estimates that executives at Ancestry are paid in a similar six-figure range as those at Walmart and PepsiCo.
Thompson has recused herself from any news about Ancestry or other genealogy companies, network spokeswoman Emily Kuhn said.
ABC this spring named Debra O’Connell, a longtime executive at the network and its corporate owner, Walt Disney Co., to a position overseeing ABC News. O’Connell’s background is in sales and marketing. She holds unpaid positions on the boards of National Geographic and the A&E Networks, both companies affiliated with Disney.
It’s hard to make assumptions about how journalists will handle knowing that the boss is interested in a particular company.
It’s human nature to want to avoid trouble, although McBride notes that some unruly journalists looking to prove their independence would dive right in. For example, in 2021, The Washington Post analyzed government data for a story about the dangers Amazon warehouse workers face.
Because NBC would not answer questions about Conde, it is not clear whether anyone has signed with NBC Universal to continue in his paid directorships.
The New York Times and Wall Street Journal are two news companies with codes of conduct that specifically talk about such roles. The Times says staff members “may not serve on boards of directors, advisory committees or similar groups, except those that serve journalistic organizations or otherwise promote journalism education.” The Journal says its employees “may not serve as directors, officers, advisors, investors, consultants or partners of any company or business engaged in the business of making a profit.”
Other situations are murkier. ABC, CBS and Fox News said their news leaders do not serve on paid outside boards of directors but could not or would not point to policies banning the practice.
AP’s employee handbook states that “we avoid seeking or accepting reimbursements or expenses from government entities; trade, lobbying or special interest groups; companies or labor groups; or any group that might pose a conflict of interest.” Neither AP President Daisy Veerasingham nor Julie Pace, AP’s editor-in-chief and senior vice president, serve on an outside board, a spokeswoman said.
It would make sense for news organizations to create clear policies on serving outside boards, and outline procedures if allowed, Poynter’s McBride said. “I don’t think this has been a big problem in the past,” she says. “The nature of news businesses has become much more complicated, so it is likely to become a problem in the future.”
News organizations are also free to decide how to alert readers or viewers to potential conflicts. The Post generally makes the owner’s ties to Amazon clear when writing about the company; a September 2023 story about workplace safety included this disclaimer: “Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post.”
The Post knows it is being looked into. Trump has dubbed the newspaper the “Amazon Washington Post” on social media, writing on Twitter in 2018 that “The Washington Post is nothing more than a high-priced… lobbyist for Amazon.”
On NBC’s “Nightly News” last July, reporter Jacob Burns reported a story about how Walmart used artificial intelligence to stock its shelves and change the jobs of some of its employees. Burns quoted a company spokesperson as saying AI wouldn’t do that. result in job losses, and one business school professor expressed some skepticism about that.
Although Conde’s NBC company profile mentions his association with Walmart, it was not included as part of Burns’ story or in a handful of digital pieces focusing on the company.
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David Bauder writes about media for The Associated Press. Follow him at http://twitter.com/dbauder.