Wow, I'm Glad I Quit the Times
I'm pretty much the world's least mysterious person (read all about me here), but I wouldn't put up with this abusive, bureaucratic new policy--especially given the low pay and insistence on buying all rights. (I have special permission to post my NYT columns on my site.) The Times should just quit using freelancers if they hate us so much. After all, they have a building full of people making much more money. (Via D Magazine's FrontBurner, which also has several reports on the huge Dallas immigration protests.)
Besides, my brand is, if considerably less financially valuable, then also less sullied than the Times's. I don't act ethically for their sake, but for mine. Their assumption that they're ethically slumming when they use freelancers is insulting.
Here's the Times questionnaire. (I tried to use Movable Type's extended entry format, but it didn't work.)
1. Please list your other current employers, whether full time or part time
2. For what other employers have you worked in the last three years?
3. What sort of volunteer work do you do regularly, if any, and for whom? (Please include any public relations, advocacy or advisory board involvement.)
4. Do you do any work paid or unpaid in politics or government? Have you done any lobbying of governmental bodies?
5. Do you have any financial investments or financial ties that may limit your ability to cover specific topics free of conflict, and if so, what are the topics?
6. Although we don't regulate the activities of spouses, partners or immediate family members of our contributors, do any of their professional or personal involvements or any of their financial investments or ties make certain topics inappropriate for you, and if so, what are the topics?
7. Have you accepted any free trips, junkets or press trips in the last two years? Have you accepted any substantial free merchandise or discounts from people we might cover?
8. Has anything you've written later resulted in a published editor's note or retraction for deliberate falsehood or plagiarism or become the subject of a lawsuit involving allegations of deliberate falsehood? (If yes, please include details about the publication and your role in the article or story. If a lawsuit, please describe the disposition of the case.)
The old Times freelance contract already prohibited you from things like taking money from people you write about. But it trusted the freelancers' judgment about when to ask editors about possible conflicts.