A new novel, with a somewhat deceiving title (A Million Little Pieces of Feces - the fake memoir that is so much more fun than James Frey's) -- echoing a different, recent ethical publishing dilemma -- satirizes the compromised ethics at play in the fictional offices of American Tractor Times magazine. This trade magazine's office environment is a textbook illustration of the breakdown in barriers between the advertising and editorial departments.
ASBPE's (American Society of Business Publication Editors) recent member survey highlighted this rampant problem, with 92 percent of respondents expressing a need for editorial ethics guidelines. Among those respondents who indicated that their magazine already had an ethical code in place, 70 percent indicated that they faced no consequence for violating it. Other hot button issues addressed in the survey -- including the acceptance of gifts and the fact that 43 percent of editors are unhappy with their jobs, partially over ethics issues -- are also satirized in the book.
New Book Satirizes Ethics at Business Mags
With all the recent posts on this blog about ethics, it's fitting that we recently received a press release on this book by pseudonymous author Python Bonkers. The press release mentions ASBPE's ethics survey:
