A herd of media are writing about Rick Friday, who was fired from Farm News, a weekly publication of The Fort Dodge (Iowa) Messenger, after it published this cartoon pointing out that the CEOs of three men who run major farming-focused corporations earned a combined $53 million in 2015, as much as 2,129 Iowa farmers.
Reports say a major advertiser was upset by the cartoon and pulled its advertising. The paper is owned by Ogden Newspapers Inc., a privately held West Virginia chain.
A few of the issues raised include:
* Editorial independence. If a big advertiser can push you around, then who else can?
* Editorial judgment. If this sort of cartoon was going to be a problem, then why not bring it up before it’s published?* Loyalties. Savvy readers now know who will win when there’s a threat.
* Traditional threats to niche publications and magazines, who more likely face a narrow set of potential advertisers.
This last point addresses the key issue of money, which is drying up in the news business. It seems harder to be ethical when losing a major advertiser becomes even more of an existential threat.
There’s a famous quote from a 20th-century newspaper chain owner that goes something like this: “It’s OK to lose your top advertiser. Just don’t lose your second.”
In this new millennium, losing a top advertiser may be enough to kill you. But it’s becoming clear that the threat of losing a top advertiser is enough to put a kink in your ethics.