New York— Cesar Conde is already managing NBC News Group's broadcast, digital, CNBC, MSNBC, Telemundo, and NBC-owned local affiliates as chairman. Yet the executive has another compensated job. Third, as a Walmart and PepsiCo board member. The arrangement raises ethical difficulties and suggests a blind spot for a journalistic organization that takes conflicts seriously.
CNN's new CEO, Mark Thompson, chairs Ancestry.com's board. Although The Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos is not a journalist, the paper mentions him when writing about Amazon. Former President Donald Trump gleefully noted Bezos' dual positions.
Bill Wheatley, a former NBC News executive, questioned Conde's outside corporate roles at a time when the news division's leadership is under fire for hiring and quickly firing former Republican National Committee head Ronna McDaniel as a contributor after a staff revolt.
“It seemed to me that this was an additional instance of NBC management not understanding the rules by which news leaders are supposed to play,” said Wheatley, who retired as NBC News' executive vice president in 2005 and has worked as a news consultant since.
Conde served on Walmart and PepsiCo boards until becoming NBC News Group chairman in 2020. According to Salary.com, the NBC News CEO got $275,018 from Walmart and $320,000 from PepsiCo in cash and shares in 2022. No proof links Conde to NBC articles regarding the two firms. NBC cited a 2021 Wall Street Journal piece where it indicated he would not report on the companies.
Even if a conflict doesn't occur, journalists try to avoid situations where one could be alleged: Do reporters write nice stories about a company a boss works for or omit unpleasant news because it would irritate a boss? Some journalists skip voting in elections they cover since perception can be as significant as conflict.
Also true at NBC. Conde's business network CNBC prohibits journalists and their spouses from buying stock for these grounds. Wheatley thinks recusal is good but doesn't resolve the dispute. “In an ideal world, I think news executives should avoid situations like this,” said University of Minnesota media ethics and law professor Jane Kirtley. If the situation can't be avoided, expose it and make clear corporations will face "without fear or favor" reporting, she said.
Senior vice president and ethics specialist Kelly McBride at the Poynter Institute, a leading media think tank, believes that the scenario is less than ideal. She adds, “we don’t want executives or anybody in journalism to be a blank slate.”
Traditional journalistic leaders have worked their way up, but not always. Before his current post, Conde excelled in corporate jobs at Univision and Telemundo. CNN's Thompson was a prominent BBC and NYT executive. Business rather than journalism, he led a successful digital transformation.
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