Media Experts Question Pollster’s Dual Roles for Speaker and Media
Friday, April 12, 2013
The Dean of the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism echoed the criticism by outcast Democrats about the dual roles of Joe Fleming. For the past two election cycles, Fleming has served as political consultant for speaker of the House Gordon Fox and Television analyst and Pollster for WPRI-12.
The pollster goes before the public as a neutral party.
"The principle at stake is that the person as a pollster goes before the public representing as a neutral party presenting information without bias or political alignments,” said Edward Wasserman, Dean of the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. "If the pollster is aligned with a particular party or organization, that’s misleading and it’s deceptive. There is an issue of transparency, an assumption of neutrality.”
Wasserman, whose expertise includes being an authority on the ethics, evolution and ownership of the news media, has written multiple articles on conflict of interest in media and media relations.
“If there’s no hiding the fact that they are aligned with a particular party, work for the party and announce that information, then there is less of a conflict. If the analyst’s representation dovetail’s with the interests of a certain party, that is problematic - ethically problematic. “
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“There is a new species, a strange hybrid of news consultants. They aren’t a source and they aren’t journalists,” Wasserman said. “You see it across media outlets.”
There was no impropriety.
Fleming, responding to allegations of impropriety and "illegal coordination" by Democrats fallen from favor with House leadership and no longer serving as representatives at the State House, told GoLocalProv.com in an interview that there was no impropriety. Fleming, a political consultant and pollster, also serves as a political analyst for WPRI-12 in Providence.
“It’s all common knowledge,” he said. "I am retained by the Speaker and under contract with the Speaker’s office. This is no secret.”
“I don’t want to comment on how I choose who I work for or how I get paid. Payments from the Leadership and PACS are public knowledge. It’s no secret that I will work with candidates who support the leadership.
Statewide, I do not work for anyone higher than the office of mayor. As a consultant for WPRI I do not comment on any campaigns that I work on,” Fleming said.
As a contracted consultant for Speaker of the House Gordon Fox, Fleming was also retained to work on several area Democratic house campaigns. He was paid directly from the House leadership and House controlled political action committees (PACs).
“I was also paid by the Senate, did work for the Senate,” he said.
In 2012, Fleming’s work as a political analyst had him polling, providing political analysis and commentary on key races and ballot issues, while also under contract with the Speaker of the House. Polling issues covered by WPRI and Fleming during the election included casino gambling, same-sex marriage, senior programs, and Governor Chafee’s handling of 38 studios.
Consider the question of professional ethics.
“I think first you have to consider the question of professional ethics,” said Stephen B. Shepard, Founding Dean of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. “If you have more than one client, generally you are contracted through non-disclosure and cannot divulge information to the other client. As a pollster you are asking specific questions of the targeted sampling. You are posing questions in the most favorable light for your client. There are three questions I would ask,” Shepard said.
1. Is there a conflict of interest?
2. Is the conflict manageable?
3. When does the conflict become insurmountable?
“You can make the argument that pollsters work for whoever hires them,” said Shepard. “The question is whether the pollster is acting as an independent analyst.”
Locally, M. Charles Bakst, former political columnist for the Providence Journal, when asked if a consultant, in this case, Mr. Fleming, should be working as a pollster for a major media outlet while under contract with the Speaker offered this comment.
“This is a two-part answer,” Bakst said. “As a general rule of thumb, I would think a media outlet would not want a pollster working for them who is also working for a political party. The second part is that I know Joe and have never had any reason to question his integrity.”
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