WSJ fires chief foreign affairs correspondent over stake in arms dealing company

[muriel_volestrangler]

I think the AP buried the lede a bit with their headline.
---snip---
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday fired its highly regarded chief foreign affairs correspondent after evidence emerged of his involvement in prospective commercial deals — including one involving arms sales to foreign governments — with an international businessman who was one of his key sources.

The reporter, Jay Solomon, was offered a 10 percent stake in a fledgling company, Denx LLC, by Farhad Azima, an Iranian-born aviation magnate who has ferried weapons for the CIA. It was not clear whether Solomon ever received money or formally accepted a stake in the company.
...
In an April 2015 email, Azima wrote to Solomon about a proposal for a $725 million air-operations, surveillance and reconnaissance support contract with the United Arab Emirates that would allow planes to spy on activity inside nearby Iran. Solomon was supposed to ferry the proposal to UAE government representatives at a lunch the following day, the email said.

“We all wish best of luck to Jay on his first defense sale,” Azima wrote to Solomon, Bernsten and Modell.
---snip---
https://apnews.com/d71bf1b8c2304329866441ec4089760f?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=AP_Politics

"I never entered into any business with Farhad Azima, nor did I ever intend to. But I understand why the emails and the conversations I had with Mr. Azima may look like I was involved in some seriously troubling activities."

Ya think???

[AJT]

1. Enough of an appearance of impropriety to get him fired

from a newspaper, but it wouldn't be enough for him to be "fired" from being President of the United States.

[MineralMan]

2. Conflicts of interest or even the appearance of such conflicts

are important for journalists to avoid. I remember Microsoft's initial stock offering in 1986 very well. $21 per share. At the time, I was just getting seriously involved in writing for consumer computer publications and was often reviewing Microsoft products and comparing them with software products from other companies.

Because of my work, I really couldn't buy Microsoft stock, even though it was fairly clear at the time that it would be a good investment. Had I bought just 100 shares at that time, it would have been worth $1.4 Million at its peak. But, since I was working as a journalist and actively writing about Microsoft and other software publishers, it would have been a conflict of interest. So, I didn't buy that 100 shares, even though I had the money to do so.

Such are the choices people have to make. Making the right choices reflects the seriousness of people and how they handle ethical issues. Making the right choices sometimes looks fairly stupid down the road, but is more important than potential gain, I think.