Good disclosure of conflicts in Washington Post stories

Andrew Alexander, the ombudsman at the Washington Post, thinks the paper has done a good job of disclosing its conflicts, such as its parent company’s ownership of Kaplan, in its news coverage.

Alexander writes, “An example was the lead story in Thursday’s paper about plans for a public stock offering by General Motors. It noted that last year the Obama administration had forced the resignation of GM chief executive G. Richard ‘Rick’ Wagoner Jr., ‘who is now a board member of The Washington Post Co.’

“‘We went out of our way to mention him in the story so that we could disclose that he’s on the board,’ said deputy business editor Alan Sipress.

“The list of Washington Post Co. holdings and interests is extensive, and the relationships are complex. Whenever a news story discusses investment giant Berkshire Hathaway or its chief executive, Warren E. Buffett, it must note that he is a Post Co. board member. Likewise, stories about Facebook must mention that its board includes Post Co. chairman and chief executive Donald E. Graham. Any story about LivingSocial, the consumer-oriented social networking site run by Tim O’Shaughnessy, must disclose that he is Graham’s son-in-law.

“As a check, I reviewed Post stories for the previous two years that prominently mentioned any of the parent company’s 11 directors. With few exceptions, their Post connection was disclosed.”

Read more here.