Bald-faced Conflict

[August 15th, 2007]

It’s not so awkward as covering China for Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal . But this may be as touchy a spot any Portland journalist has gotten into since reporter Tom Hallman Jr. took free parking from a friendly source.

Come September, John Canzano, The Oregonian ’s star sports columnist, will be getting a paycheck from Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen, on Allen’s NewsRadio 750 KXL, the Blazers’ flagship station. Canzano had previously been yakking at 1080 The Fan, an all-sports station. According to one radio insider, Canzano will be getting more than $80,000 a year for his daily radio gig, in addition to his Oregonian paycheck.

Two O staffers told WW that many in the paper’s newsroom were upset about the deal, asking how it differed from Hallman’s free parking arrangement with a prominent source, past Hallman profile subject Andrew Wiederhorn.

The O punished Hallman earlier this year with reassignment and an unpaid two-week suspension.

Canzano anticipated criticisms of a conflict of interest when he announced the new gig Aug. 6 on his Oregonian blog, two days before an unbylined blurb appeared in the paper.

“I know what you’re thinking... ‘He’s a sellout...,’” Canzano wrote. “KXL is owned by Paul Allen. He also owns the Trail Blazers.”

But Canzano tried to stifle any concerns about a journalist getting paid by the owner of the very organization he covers with the comment that, “the Blazers must have big-time confidence in their product because I’ve been granted 100-percent editorial control, guaranteeing you that you’re going to get me as unfiltered and authentic on the radio as I am in print.”

Canzano does seem determined to prove his independence. In his first print column since the deal became public, Canzano attacked “Allen, who has a reputation as a lousy businessman,” for his management of the franchise.

Canzano has a history of fighting with the Blazers. His coverage of the NBA team was so critical that the Blazers persuaded The Oregonian to hire an outsider to take a look at the paper’s coverage of the team (see “Blazers Gazers,” WW , Nov. 8, 2006). It fell to Craig Lancaster, a former sports editor of the San Jose Mercury News , to document every petty detail of the Canzano-Blazers feud, in a lengthy article last November.

WW asked Bob Steele, the ubiquitous journalism-ethics guru for the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., what he thought about a sports journalist getting paid by the owner of the only major league team in town. He recused himself from commenting, on account of recent consulting work he’d done for the O . Sandy Padwe, a Columbia Journalism School professor who specializes in sports and ethics, was free to judge.

“I think it is a conflict, no matter how he tries to justify it,” Padwe wrote in an email. “He shouldn’t put himself in the position to even consider whether he is offending Allen or the Trail Blazers on some matter. He should just write for The Oregonian . I’m surprised The Oregonian ’s editors, who have such high standards, allowed this.”

In a press release last week, Blazers exec Mike Golub said, “While we may not always agree with what John might say, this new partnership will add an unprecedented level of transparency.”

So far, the transparency appears unprecedented only in the sense that Dick Cheney would appreciate. Canzano said he couldn’t talk on the record, “per orders from above.” The O’ s executive editor, Peter Bhatia, Standards Editor Therese Bottomly, Letters Editor Giselle Williams and Sports Editor Mark Hester did not return messages.