[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 125 (Wednesday, August 1, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1673]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




CONGRATULATING OUR NATION'S BUSINESS PUBLICATION EDITORS ON THEIR CODE 
                               OF ETHICS

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                        HON. CAROLYN B. MALONEY

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 31, 2007

  Mrs. MALONEY of New York. Madam Speaker, on August 2nd and 3rd, the 
American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE) will be 
holding its national editorial conference in New York City for the 
first time in its almost 40-year history. I wanted to use this occasion 
to congratulate ASBPE for its outstanding efforts to increase the 
professionalization of our nation's trade press editors.
  The work of trade publication editors is vitally important to not 
only our democracy but to the commercial success of our country as 
well. Each and every industry in the United States is served by an 
array of magazines, newsletters, newspapers, and Web publications whose 
only mission is to facilitate the free exchange of information among 
professionals in an industry. As the knowledgeable and highly trained 
specialists who create the content for and manage those publications, 
business editors are the key to the continued free flow of news, best 
practices, and technical research that's so critical to ensuring the 
continued success of American professionals and industry in a rapidly 
globalizing world. Trade editors are the indispensable knowledge 
workers who help shape the environment in which businesses and 
nonprofit organizations operate. These knowledge workers combine 
expertise in their subject matter with their skills as writers and 
editors to tell the stories that professionals in an industry rely on 
to grow their own expertise. Without our trade press editors, companies 
and organizations would operate in a black hole, devoid of information 
and unable to grow. In our post-industrial world, information is the 
currency of success.
  It's especially fitting that ASBPE be acknowledged at this time, 
because it has recently released its revised Code of Ethics, which is 
unique in the scope of its effort to come to grips with the rapidly 
changing digital environment in which editors must work. Professionals 
throughout the world of business journalism have appropriately 
acknowledged the thoughtful, balanced approach taken by ASBPE to set 
guidelines for editors struggling to understand what's appropriate, and 
what's not, in today's highly digitalized world. Already ASBPE has 
received kudos from publishers and editors for balancing the needs of 
advertisers and the inviolable need for journalism objectivity in our 
brave new world of digital media, but I'd like to add my own 
congratulations for its admirable work in this area. ASBPE's Code of 
Ethics truly represents one of the first comprehensive efforts to give 
editors the same level of guidance in the digital world that they have 
had in the print world.
  I have been very involved in many issues considered by this Congress 
that impact the job of journalism professionals like those who belong 
to ASBPE. As you know, as a member of the Subcommittee on Government 
Management, Finance, and Accountability, I have tried to ensure the 
rights of journalists to maintain access to government information, as 
intended in the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Among other 
things, I recognized early on the impact of digital communications on 
journalism by advocating passage of E-FOIA, a law that eases public 
access to information in an electronic format under the Freedom of 
Information Act. In the 109th Congress I was an early cosponsor of the 
OPEN Government Act, which would help independent bloggers and other 
new-media communicators obtain government information by expanding FOIA 
provisions to journalists not affiliated with institutions. Time and 
again I have called for openness over secrecy in the dissemination of 
information by the executive branch of the federal government, whether 
it involves testimony from former government officials on homeland 
security matters, or scientists' recommendations on contraceptive 
safety. In these efforts, I share many of the goals of the editorial 
professionals in the trade press.
  It is with great pleasure that I welcome ASBPE to my city and 
congratulate its president, Roy Harris, Jr., of CFO Magazine in Boston, 
and its incoming president, Steven Roll of the Bureau of National 
Affairs in Washington, D.C., for the success of their growing 
organization. I also want to congratulate Warren Hersch, ASBPE's New 
York City chapter president, for hosting his organization in our great 
city. A congratulatory note, too, to ASBPE's two most recent past 
presidents, Paul Heney of Hydraulics & Pneumatics Magazine in 
Cleveland, and Robert Freedman of Realtor Magazine in Washington, D.C. 
Finally, a hearty good luck to ASBPE's other national officers, Vice 
President Portia Stewart of Firstline Magazine, in Kansas City, Kans., 
and Treasurer Ira Pilchin of the American Bar Association in Chicago, 
and the incoming vice president, Amy Fischbach of Kansas City, and Jyme 
Mariani of GMPRO in Fort Worth, Texas.

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