Work-play divide

Mike Wise, a Washington Post sports columnist, was suspended from his job for knowingly publishing a fake tweet about a football player. Apparently Wise's tweet was intended to be "a test ... of how fast a piece of misinformation could spread online."

I must admit, it's an interesting question from an academic standpoint. However, Wise's experiment, if that's really what this was, was supremely dumb: you don't invent falsehoods about real people, for crying out loud. How you get to be a professional journalist without understanding how serious an ethical violation that is, I can't imagine.

That's not what this entry is about, though. From further on in the article:

Within a few hours of Mr. Wise’s Twitter post on Monday, The Post’s sports editor, Matthew Vita, sent an e-mail to his staff reminding it of the paper’s guidelines for using social media.

“When you use social media, remember that you are representing The Washington Post, even if you are using your own account,” Mr. Vita wrote. “This is not to be treated lightly.”

My quibble is with "even if you are using your own account."

I believe that a bright line separates work from non-work. When you're working, you're working, and what you do is your employer's business, but when you're not working, what you do isn't your employer's business. There are exceptions to this, but they're few and far between. I don't believe that reporters are among those exceptions, unless, as Wise did, they speak out on the subjects they cover.