Work Text:
Journalistic Ethics
"Alright! You have your marching orders! Head out!" Perry White pronounced at the end of the meeting.
"Chief? Can I talk to you about my assignment?" Clark Kent piped up when everyone walked out of the room.
"What's wrong Kent? It's a simple enough job. You're going to be at the memorial ceremony anyway. You requested time off for it, remember? This way you don't need the time off to be there. All you need to do is do your report and ask Superman some questions." Perry replied.
"I... Uh... Can't do that sir." Clark admitted, clearly wanting to be anywhere but in this office talking to him, but forcing himself to push forward anyway.
Clark was a trooper, Perry thought to himself. A bit of a wet blanket but he had a Journalist's spine to him. Unwilling to be intimidated or back down under pressure.
"Why not? You were planning to go to the memorial service, right?" Perry asked.
"Right! But-"
"And you are a reporter, right? You know how to report on memorial services. You did it last month for that one in New York." Perry continued.
"Well, yes but-"
"And I know you know how to interview powerful people. That interview you did with President Luthor got him impeached and thrown out of office, didn't it? You didn't have a problem interviewing him?"
"That's not the problem, sir." Clark Kent admitted.
"Then what is the issue, son?" Perry asked halfway between bafflement and frustration.
"I can't interview Superman. I can't even try. It would be wrong." Clark admitted.
"Wrong? He's a major driver of news. He shapes current events on no one's say so but his own. Having him explain his reasoning isn't wrong and you're the best interviewer I have on staff."
"Lois-"
"No son. Lois is an amazing investigative reporter, and she can definitely do interviews. She interviewed Superman the first time he popped up. But she's not my best interviewer. She doesn't have that ability to set people at ease that you do. Also, she hasn't been able to get an interview with Big Blue in two months, and I'm sending her on that Stagg Industries spill. So I need you to do this."
"I'm sorry Chief, I can't. It would be a violation of Journalistic ethics. It's a conflict of interest. And... Like a dozen other issues but the conflict is the big one."
"A violation of- are you sleeping with Superman, Clark?" Perry asked, once more baffled.
"That's... No?" Clark replied seeming equally befuddled by the question.
"Is he a relative?" Perry asked.
"Well, huh. I'm not actually sure how to answer that one, chief." Clark admitted. "I... Maybe?"
"Kent. I need to know the nature of your conflict of interest here." Perry replied.
"I... Uh... Well, the thing is... I am Superman. And, for ethical reasons I can't really... Interview myself?" Clark Kent revealed suddenly floating a foot above the floor.
"What." Perry White was not expecting that news today. Nor was he prepared to receive it.
"So, I can't exactly- it would be unethical to fake an interview where I know the questions ahead of time. And well, I also can't exactly be in two places at once? So even if it were okay I wouldn't be able to interview myself in public. Not that I'd be doing the interview anyway, because it's wrong." Clark admitted.
This- This was huge!
Perry White wracked his mind over Clark Kent's assignments over the past two years he'd been employed. Had he ever assigned Kent to something where this conflict should have come up before?
There was obviously a pre-existing relationship between Kent and Lex that he knew of now... What with Lex trying to murder Superman. But that interview was painstakingly documented, as were all the background interviews. And interviewing people who wanted to kill you wasn't a breach of Journalistic ethics, nor was going undercover for an exposé, nor wanting to expose the crimes of those you were interviewing.
The mystery of how Kent found his sources and knew what they knew was now revealed, but... Using all your abilities to do background research wasn't a breach of journalistic ethics, it was a requirement! Nor was writing under an assumed identity a journalistic sin. Pen names were a tradition dating back to the founding of newspapers in America, at least!
There were events where Clark was sent out to interview survivors of disasters that Superman had helped with... He was great at identifying people with amazing stories of Superman saving them and for extremely factual eyewitness accounts of the damage. Which made sense if he was there helping and rescuing those people. But interviewing witnesses and viewing the scenes of disasters weren't journalistic sins.
"You're dating Lois." Perry realized. "You've been dating her for two months. That's why Big Blue ghosted her."
"Ah. Well that's..."
"She knows! She knows and stopped interviewing you because of it!" Perry realized.
Clark did that farm boy shuffle of his; looking down, his cheeks blazing as he shuffled his feet bashfully.
The effect was ruined by the fact that he was still floating a foot in the air.
"You can't interview Superman." Perry realized.
"Yeah." Clark admitted.
"Lois can't interview Superman." Perry continued.
"Sorry about that but I-"
"No. No. That's fine. You don't need to explain your relationship in detail." Perry took a deep breath and collapsed into his plush office chair. "I can't interview Superman either. I'm your boss. And... I can't put anyone else on this knowing who you are."
Perry paused.
"You've put me in a whale of a dilemma, Kent."
"Sorry, chief." Kent apologized.
He meant it too, Perry realized.
"No. This is... I think I know how to fix this." Perry admitted.
"You... Do?" Clark asked.
"Yeah. I'll have to be more careful with your assignments, but you mostly do interviews anyway, so that's not too much of an imposition. And it's nice knowing one of my reporters is bulletproof. We can give you some assignments that I wasn't willing to give Lois due to the danger."
"Lous is going to kill me." Clark muttered.
He was probably right. Lois Lane loved putting herself in danger more than anyone Perry knew. And he knew a hell of a lot of reporters. Clark Kent scooping her on the Planet's most dangerous assignments?
Perry resigned himself for a daily deluge of complaints from his most danger-prone reporter.
"And... there's still the ethical problem of anyone at the Planet interviewing Superman." Clark pointed out, not unreasonably.
"That's not a problem Clark. That's an opportunity." Perry replied.
Clark blinked, not realizing what Perry had realized.
That was fine. Clark was still very much a cub reporter despite his skill in interviews and facility with both words and investigations.
"Clark. If I've hired Superman as a reporter then that means I can get eyewitness reports from Superman." Perry explained as if to a particularly slow child.
"But I can't-"
"Clark. If I can't interview Superman then I'll have to get Superman's opinions directly. You're going to meet with Cat Grant. As Superman. She'll teach you how to write opinion pieces to the Daily Planet's standard."
"You're making me an opinion columnist!?" Clark asked, shocked enough that he descended back to the floor with a loud thump. He sounded absolutely horrified.
Good. That would teach him to not pull anything like this again. Journalists were supposed to report the news not make it. Who did he think he was, Hunter S. Thompson?
"No. You're going to continue doing interviews. I'm making Superman an opinion columnist." Perry explained.
"I have a job!"
"You have two jobs, son. One is doing what I tell you to, and one is being Superman. This is the first."
Perry sucked in a deep breath as something occurred to him. "Lordy. No wonder you always get your work in well before the deadline. You have super speed!"
"Yeah..." Clark admitted.
"I'll have to pay your Superman identity separately. If Clark Kent is paid, then I need to admit that Superman is compensated for any articles under that name too." Perry mused.
"Ah. Lois actually helped me get something set up last month. A charitable foundation to help disaster victims. You can just pay that for any Superman stuff." Clark offered.
"No. You'll need to donate the money yourself. After taxes. I'll just need to pay you twice. Luckily the second time will be as a contractor. Can you imagine having to provide Superman with health insurance?"
"You already do that chief. I mostly don't use it. My doctors tend to be out of network." Clark admitted.
Perry blinked.
"That's gonna take some getting used to." He admitted.
"And... The memorial assignment?" Clark asked.
"You'll get the time off. I'll put Jimmy on it. He doesn't know you're Superman too, does he?"
"No. Just you, Lois, my ma and pa, some of the other Superheroes, and a few friends back in Smallville."
"Right. You have connections with superheroes. Can you leverage those to get Lois some interviews?" Perry asked.
"I wouldn't do that to my friends. Lois is vicious." Clark admitted. "Not that it's stopped her from asking. She knows a few and is working on wearing them down though."
"Of course she's already thought of it." Perry realized. Lois was absolutely his best reporter. Perry had thought that she and Clark were neck and neck, but after this nonsense? No. It was definitely Lois.
"Wait. You fly to other planets regularly." Perry realized.
"Yeah." Clark nodded.
"Take a camera and some tape next time. Do some interviews and investigation. You're conflicted to hell and back on Earth because of your Superman schtick and I have no idea how you've managed not to run afoul of Journalistic ethics before-"
"Very carefully, Chief." Clark admitted.
Perry snorted. The fact that Clark hadn't broken any major rules of journalism was the only reason he wasn't being fired right now, Superman or not.
"But off-world there's no Clark. You can do your interviews as Superman; assuming you have some time. People would love to know how people live on other planets. Almost as much as they'd like to hear Superman's opinions." Perry finished as if not interrupted.
Clark smiled. "Got it, Chief. Thank you for understanding!"
"And Clark?"
"Yes, Chief?"
"Don't call me Chief." Perry commanded as Clark left.
"Understood." Clark agreed with a smile, leaving Perry's office.
Perry frowned as the door shut.
Clark's judgement was good, but he couldn't afford to leave the ethics of the Daily planet to any one man's set of right and wrong. Not even Superman's.
He pulled up Kent's portfolio to look through it. Trust but verify. It wouldn't do to skimp on the investigation. Not for a potential breach of Journalistic ethics this big.
At least Clark wasn't making up imaginary interviews with his alter ego. He'd definitely need to fire him if he pulled a unfathomably stupid stunt like that!
The End.