Is my Self-Oppo firm possible?

May 12, 2023 1:45 PM

In August 2020, I asked MeFi if I could run a firm that conducted candidate self-research for a client candidate, not necessarily opposition research against his or her opposing candidate.

I got the idea for the firm because I've conducted interviews with candidates for more than a decade and have become well known across the political spectrum as a fair and thorough interviewer. And because I've encountered so many candidates who ended up dropping out of their races because of skeletons they didn't realize were there, or underestimated, I thought creating such a firm would be a benefit to those new candidates.

But as I was explaining it to an advertising team that I'd hoped could help me promote the firm to candidates-to-be, I realized there wasn't any way I could run the firm for profit and continue to interview politicians while maintaining impartiality, esp. to the public. There is clearly a need, but I don't know how the two can co-exist.

I can imagine candidates who paid for me to do research on them as a firm would expect me to go easy on them if I interviewed them later as a reporter. Or, the public would see a conflict of interest and no longer trust the interviews. I love doing interviews and see the need for doing candidate research. I just don't know if I can do both.

Is there any way they can coexist? Or can they both operate, but somehow, separated? Like, could one part be a non profit and the other part be for profit? Could any of the money earned mitigate questions if it was donated to a non profit of the candidate's choice? Just trying to see if this can work. Any help or advice you can give is appreciated.

posted by CollectiveMind to Media & Arts (5 answers total)

I've conducted interviews with candidates for more than a decade and have become well known across the political spectrum as a fair and thorough interviewer

What does this mean? Are you a journalist? If so, no, you can't do paid work (of this or any other kind) for political candidates that you also cover as a journalist and expect your journalism to be taken seriously.
posted by caek at 2:00 PM on May 12, 2023 [7 favorites]

You could not do this as a one person operation if you are a reporter or some kind of journalist. I do think your idea could absolutely be useful. I wonder if you could partner with a nonprofit political organization, or potentially an existing political consulting firm in a way that would be ethical. You absolutely could not do both things yourself ethically as a journalist. But I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t consult with an appropriate organization that might want to develop this tool with your help. That is my quick and dirty response as a former professional journalist.
posted by Bella Donna at 2:33 PM on May 12, 2023

I am in the opposition research business and I agree that you absolutely cannot ethically do this while continuing to be a journalist. Your idea is useful and candidates often don't spend enough time or resources on self research only to have it come back and bite them in the end. The idea of consulting with a group -- maybe something like Run for Something, which trains first time candidates -- to develop a set of self research tools that could help candidates avoid these pitfalls seems like a good and ethical one.
posted by fancypants at 2:40 PM on May 12, 2023 [5 favorites]

I’m a conflict of interest professional but not in your field, so there are definitely going to be nuances specifically related to politics and journalism that I don’t know anything about. But my very quick reaction to this is “absolutely not.”

If forced to suggest a possible mitigation strategy I suppose I would consider trying to find some way to scope the two fields of work so they don’t touch. Like, you only interview state and local candidates and only do federal candidate research, and once someone you’ve researched locally crosses into federal politics you don’t touch them. Or more broadly you don’t interview anyone you’ve researched, or anyone who you’ve gained information about in the process of researching others, ever again

But I agree you’d be better off developing training for others to do this kind of research .
posted by Stacey at 2:58 PM on May 12, 2023 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: Thank you all. When I add 1+1, I also get ... and only get, 2.
posted by CollectiveMind at 7:50 AM on May 13, 2023 [1 favorite]