The day I sold my soul.

I think everybody has a moment when their integrity and personal values are challenged. It's all very well and good to spout rhetoric and proudly declare your ideals, but it's quite another to actually adhere to those concepts in your day-to-day life: it's easy to talk the talk, but sometimes it's hard to walk it. Let alone long term... your feet simply begin to get sore, and you give up even trying.

I know a lot of people who've encountered this professionally, and I think perhaps that's one of the hardest times to stick to your guns. I know a just-qualified nutritionist who works part-time at Krispy Kreme, and fights (and often fails) the urge every day to tell his customers the 68732 reasons why they should avoid the products he's selling. Another friend worked for a major company with a pretty dodgy human rights track record overseas. My parents' friend is a bank manager, and knows he's hated by most of his customers for what he's professionally obligated to do. When I worked at the gym, I loathed feeling like I was conning vulnerable, insecure people into contracts they didn't fully understand.

There are obviously even more extreme examples of this sort of thing: the political leader who endorses and implements policies so deeply at odds with his personal values. The soldier forced to kill civilians. A scientist who knows their research is going to result in horrific weaponry that will maim and kill.

And then there's me. Sitting at my desk in my cushy job at a government-funded, highly-regarded, totally respectable and reputable organisation. It's all so politically-correct and above-board and non-controversial. I never thought I'd be thrown into a situation where my deepest values would be tested, and I'd be forced to choose between professional obligation and personal beliefs.

And then a journalist from Ninemsn phoned for information for a story they're working on.

Wait... I'm sorry... let me try that again...

And then a "journalist" from Ninemsn phoned for information for a "story" they're working on.

I was torn. On the one hand, it's my job to provide information to the public. And to do so in a respectful, professional manner.

On the other, it's Ninemsn, perhaps the least reputable, most sensationalist news source in the country.

Some of my favourite stories of late...
No Escape: sheep jump to death before slaughter!
I was sacked for having big breasts!
Backpacker used iPod to film woman in shower!
Lara Bingle's cousin steals bikini limelight!

And then, of course, there was their extensive coverage of the two-horned unicorn, proving once and for all that they are not only disreputable journalists, they are also borderline illiterate (and obviously were not exposed to goats during their formative years).

Eventually, my sense of professional duty won out. I agreed to speak with this journalist, and provided her with all the statistics, publications and resources she requested.

I'm going to have to live with this for the rest of my life: the knowledge that I aided her in her misguided, irresponsible, possibly evil agenda. I am an enabler. I am like complacent authorities in a corrupt political regime. I am like the person who gave Hitler the microphone. I am, in part, responsible for the horrors that will inevitably result.

... don't be surprised if you find me quoted in an article about mermaid sightings in the very near future.