{"id":1684,"date":"2010-03-31T11:51:57","date_gmt":"2010-03-31T15:51:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/000af36.netsolhost.com\/wordpress1\/2010\/03\/31\/a-freelancers-ethical-problem\/"},"modified":"2010-03-31T11:51:57","modified_gmt":"2010-03-31T15:51:57","slug":"a-freelancers-ethical-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/2010\/03\/31\/a-freelancers-ethical-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"A Freelancer’s Ethical Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

A private investigator hired a freelance writer<\/a> to dig into the background of two FDA officials.  The firm, Kroll, was hired by drug maker Amphastar Pharmaceuticals that was frustrated that its generic drug wasn\u2019t getting approval fast enough.  <\/p>\n

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At one point, the investigators hired a freelance reporter to file Freedom of Information Act requests, using her status as a journalist to request Woodcock\u2019s emails, phone records, voicemails, calendar and expense reports, among other documents \u2013 without mentioning that she was being paid for her efforts by a private investigative firm.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am making this request as a journalist and this information is of timely value,\u201d Melanie Haiken, a San Francisco-based freelance reporter wrote to the FDA. \u201cAs a journalist, I am primarily engaged in disseminating information.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haiken did not disclose that she was working for the private investigators at the time. In an email explaining its fees, Kroll told Amphastar that the expenses related to the FOIC covered \u201cthe cost of the person we are using to make the requests untraceable to you, the client.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\u2026Haiken, the freelance journalist, confirms that she filed the FOIA on behalf of Kroll. But Haiken said her intent was journalistic, and that she hoped the FOIAs would yield an interesting story. \u201cI\u2019m not really an investigator, I\u2019m a health writer,\u201d she said. \u201cI have a right to get a story tip from somebody, even if it\u2019s somebody at Kroll.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is a horrible breach of ethics for a reporter\u2014freelance or not. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A private investigator hired a freelance writer to dig into the background of two FDA officials.  The firm, Kroll, was hired by drug maker Amphastar Pharmaceuticals that was frustrated that its generic drug wasn\u2019t getting approval fast enough.  At one point, the investigators hired a freelance reporter to file Freedom of Information Act requests, using… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[136,134,185],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1684"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1684\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}