Editorial: Ethics ultimately won

Friday, March 11, 2005 | 9:03 a.m.

On Wednesday state Sen. Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas, ended her $3,000-a-month consulting contract with Sunbelt Communications, which owns Las Vegas TV station KVBC Channel 3. Cegavske said she had been hired to provide her insights on education and the legislative process to KVBC's newsroom.

The relationship, first reported in the Las Vegas Sun last week after she had disclosed it during a Senate Finance Committee hearing, raised serious ethical issues. Questions of propriety arose for KVBC because, as a news organization, it has a duty to ensure its independence from people it covers. For a news organization, credibility is essential to maintaining the public's trust; hiring an elected official won't help in that endeavor. Ethical questions also were posed for Cegavske since she has to vote on matters involving the state university system. Jim Rogers, who owns Sunbelt Communications, also is interim chancellor of the university system.

There hasn't been evidence that KVBC went easy on Cegavske because she was a consultant or that Cegavske was a big booster of the university system. Indeed, one of the projects that Rogers has been pushing, more funding for Nevada State College, is something that Cegavske has questioned. And while Cegavske points to an Ethics Commission opinion that said she didn't violate any state laws by her relationship with KVBC, there are two important points to remember. The commission didn't interview others involved and only had information from Cegavske to rely on, so this review was rudimentary at best. Further, just because something is legal doesn't necessarily make it right. The arrangement that KVBC and Cegavske entered into is one that journalists must avoid at all costs, a reason why we're glad to see that it is now over.