Do I stand up and defy my boss or do I keel over and die?

Last week, my wife and I had dinner with a TV anchorwoman from Hong Kong. Let's call her Angela.

Angela trained in journalism at one of the top J-schools in the US. Her fierce ambition led her to win a HK beauty pageant, work at CNN and she eventually landed a plum job as anchor and lead reporter of a widely-watched weekly financial show -- which featured CEOs from Hong Kong and China.

Then came the phone call.

"I've been eyeing you," the company chairman said. "I'm putting you in charge of marketing, production and editorial. Plus, you can still anchor that show. And I'm giving you a raise, of couse."

Angela was blown away by the extraordinary favor. The chairman from China had just taken over the top spot. It was almost too good to be true. And it was.

"The company's been bleeding money for years," he growled. "When you host your show, I want you to charge the companies advertising fees for appearing on your show. If four CEOs show up in your show, you'll be making big bucks. You'll save the company. And your division will get a huge bonus -- it's up to you how to distribute it. What do you think?"

That night Angela couldn't sleep. It was simply appalling that the chairman was trying to destroy journalistic integrity. He was basically enlisting her to destroy the invisible wall between editorial and advertising. All the credibility and viewer trust would be gone -- in a second. No right-minded journalist would allow this to happen on her watch!

At the same time, Angela felt the chairman had a point. Media companies in Hong Kong were all bleeding. If nothing was done she'd be out of a job one day. It was a slow and inevitable death. And why should prissy journalists stand above the fray of hard choices in business?

Angela felt trapped between a rock and a hard place. She considered her responses:
a) Quit. After all she's not hard up for money. And yet she felt called to her job - to make a difference in her viewers' lives by providing sound financial advice
b) Give in. It's only a job. And she would be given so much power that she could make a difference in other ways. What's so bad about asking companies to pay to appear on TV?
c) Protest and hope for the best. Boy, she wanted to do that real bad. But that would just offend the chairman. Plus she had no other better alternative. So how?

What would you do?

I'll tell you more about Angela's response in the next post.