Associated Press investigation yields shocking information for the Wall Street Journal.
Cheif foreign affairs correspondent for the Wall-street Journal Jay Solomon faces termination
In June of 2017, Chief foreign affairs correspondent for the Wall Streets Journal, Jay Solomon, was terminated from his position. The decision to fire Solomon came after ethically questionable dealings between himself and an informant of his were uncovered. The informant was Farhad Azima, who was quoted as being “an Iranian-born aviation magnate who has ferried weapons for the CIA.” Solomons relationship with Azima was started purely to get inside information and scoops on Iranian Political affairs and as far as most people knew, that’s all it was.
Their business dealings with one another were brought to light during an AP (Associated Press) investigation on Azima. During the investigation into Azima AP obtained a “collection of tens of thousands of emails his lawyers say was stolen by hackers.” Within those hacked messages Solomon was offered a 10% stake in a small company by Azima, the company being Denx LLC. According to AP, these emails between the two of them had gone on for multiple years at this point dating all the way back to October 2014, quoting Solomon as saying “Our business opportunities are so promising.”
There were two other Denx partners both of whom were ex-CIA employees, Gary Bernsten and Scott Modell, both of whom had also started their respective relationships with Azima as purely work related before venturing into business with the man. Bernsten and Modell told AP that Solomon simultaneously worked on the business end discussing proposals and deals with Azima all the while cultivating the man as source for his stories for the journal. Bernsten and Modell also told AP that Solomon withdrew from the Denx project shortly after efforts truly began and that it never amounted to much in the end.
The emails detailing the Denx business effort had communication about the project spanning over a total of 18 months but that was not the only dealing they had between each other. In a 2015 email Azima wrote to Solomon detailing a 75$ million-dollar proposal contract with the United Arab Emirates that would “allow planes to spy on activity inside nearby Iran.” According to the hacked emails Solomon was expected by Azima to bring up or at the very least mention the proposal to government representatives from the UAE at lunch the next day.
After all this information was brought to the public after by the Associated Press after Solomons termination, The Wall Street Journal made a short statement condemning Solomon saying that he “forfeited” the newspapers trust. This statement was followed by a much longer one made by the Wall Street Journal’s Spokesperson, Steve Severinghaus.
“The allegations raised by this reporting are serious. While our own investigation continues, we have concluded that Mr. Solomon violated his ethical obligations as a reporter, as well as our standards. He has not been forthcoming with us about his actions or his reporting practices and he has forfeited our trust. Mr. Solomon is no longer employed by The Wall Street Journal.”
It can be argued that Solomons Participation in these dealing with Azima break three of the four main guidelines of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) code of ethics. The four guidelines go as followed, “Seek truth and report it”, “Minimize harm”, “Act independently” and “Be Accountable and transparent”. These categories each have their own sub-sections of guidelines outlining further rules to follow for the journalists. Solomon broke all the above categories except for “Minimize harm”.
For seek truth and report it Solomon broke the sub-guideline stating that journalists should “Avoid undercover or other surreptitious methods of gathering information unless traditional, open methods will not yield information vital to the public”. He broke this by engaging in a close business partnership and pseudo friendship with Azima to cultivate and use him for inside information with no evidence of traditional journalistic methods being ineffective. A copy of Azimas first tweet perfectly illustrates the friendly relationship the two held even outside of the emails. “Hi @WSJSolomon,” Azima wrote. “@azimausa welcome to Twitter, your excellency!” Responded Solomon, along with this Solomon was Azimas first follower on twitter; the same day he made his account.
The multiple sub-guidelines Solomon broke for “Act independently” are as followed. Avoids any form of conflicts of interest with those involved in any way with your journalistic efforts. Along with refusing any form of gifts, favors or special treatment by those who are involved within your work. Solomon cut and dry broke these rules by engaging in a business and personal relationship with Azima while accepting additional information to boost his stories for the journal.
The last SPJ guideline Solomon broke was “Be accountable and transparent”. Solomons response to the AP shows without a doubt he broke this rule initially stating, “I clearly made mistakes in my reporting and entered into a world I didn’t understand.” Solomon later clarified with a follow up statement saying “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. I apologize to my bosses and colleagues at the Journal, who were nothing but great to me.”
After Everything was done and the AP article had made its media rounds Solomon was disgraced and his career irreparably damaged. He had lost his job, his reputation and all good faith he had gathered through his years as a journalist.
In my opinion Solomon deserved every punishment that had been given to him. He fully knew that what he was doing was wrong as a journalist yet continued to participate in outside dealing with people involved in his work for years. There is an irrefutable amount of evidence against Solomon demonstrating his pure lack of good faith as a journalist. In my opinion the most damning of all was his brokering of both financial and political deals between Azima and those in power at the United Arab Emirates.
SOURCES
https://apnews.com/article/d71bf1b8c2304329866441ec4089760f
https://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2017/06/21/jay-solomon-wall-street-journal-fired-239819