Boston Herald Columnist Also on Romney (Gov, R-MA) Payroll

Much is circulating today about a Boston Herald columnist getting a $10K gig to promote Mass. Governor Mitt Romney's environmental policies ($10K sounds like a lot considering Romney's environmental policies can be summed up as, "What environmental policy?" and "Dust and debris from the Big Dig is good for you (not quite as good as Post-9/11 debris was for the residents and workers of Lower Manhattan but almost!)").

But I don't think it helps if we scream and yell about this in quite the same way we yelled about the clear skankiness of Armstrong Williams on the take and Jeff Gannon - Military Stud4Hire cum White House Press Corps. There are differences, and not just because one's a state issue and the others are political. Both still present some ethical issues, but the Boston case doesn't quite meet the degree of whoreness, both
monetarily and ethical.

According to what I've read, BH's Chieppo (what a name) fully disclosed to the Herald (Romney's office would have already known) and that the Herald agreed he could not write Herald content that related to anything he'd be doing for Romney. I did not see that this was disclosed to the public readership, however, and I feel that should have been done.

Williams, by comparison, never disclosed to his syndicate or to his readers. And Gannon never should have been nearer the White House than New Jersey and the White House HAD to have known about his publicly-posted "golden shower" video and advertising his services as a whore. But the White House assumes every reporter is a whore and - with some notable exceptions - the press has happily played
slut-for-hire to fulfill the Bush Administration's lofty view of them.

Why has this simple obvious truth gone so carefully unsaid in all of this?
Chieppo's also in a different position with the Herald than Williams had with the syndication and Gannon had as a card carrying (and I assume he carried a few "stud for hire" business cards in his wallet along with his press pass) member of the official WH press corps.

Chieppo's a contract writer being paid by piece for the Herald. From a writer's and publishing standpoint, that is "not a voice of record for the publication". It's a basic content provider job: the Herald buys a column from him on a pay-per-piece basis rather than having him on staff. A writer like that is of course going to have other contracts.

But as long as he disclosed to the Herald immediately and as long as he indeed keeps his Mitt's (heh) off anything directly to do with Romney (and if he does, disclose again publicly) in general and Mass environmental policy or Romney's challengers or Romney ethical probes (and if he does, disclose)... I think Chieppo's played it by the book.

I'm a contract writer. In any given year, I may work for between five and a hundred different editors/publishers/publications. In some of my work, I review and write about the computer industry, its players and products. As part of some of my other work (since I'm a Web community analyst and consultant), I've contracted with companies like Microsoft and ZDNet to either build/manage communities, offer expert analysis or program documentation, or provide content for their Web properties.

Whenever my different worlds begin to come within loose orbits of one another, nobody has to come asking if I have any even remotely possible competing or conflicting connections; the people I work with are told, upfront, at the start.

So while I don't personally like Chieppo doing this - I've seen ads for various editorial/promo jobs for Romney in some of the "writer for hire" subs I watch and I sure wouldn't take a Romney job - I don't think he's in error, technically or otherwise.