Time Reporters Admit They Voted for Obama, Hillary

Should liberal reporters bare all on their voting records? Time TV writer James Poniewozik not only declared that he voted for Obama, but that other reporters should do the same: "Writing about election coverage, I have disclosed, probably to the point of tediousness, that I voted for Obama. I think it's a good thing for you to know, but I really do it for me. It's important to me that I have enough perspective to critique campaign coverage whether it works for my candidate or against him. Having you know more about where I'm coming from helps you keep me honest and forces me to police myself."

Time reporter Lisa Takeuchi Cullen did the same: she voted for Hillary. "Last Tuesday, I voted in my state's primary. I'll even tell you who I voted for: Hillary Clinton. I'm a registered Democrat, and I've been voting for nearly 20 years, ever since I came to this country. In past presidential elections, I voted for Kerry, Gore, Clinton and Clinton."

Both Poniewozik and Cullen believe that reporters can vote, and can declare their voting preferences and still gain a reputation for fairness. (They both frankly note that they aren't exactly political reporters, and Cullen finds that the ones who are don't want to declare their ballot-box choices.)

I think that can be true, if reporters truly seek fairness and balance, even people who've worked in Democratic politics. We have praised Tim Russert and Jeff Greenfield on some occasions, for example. It could be that those well-known partisan backgrounds lead journalists to compensate with a greater effort toward fairness. (On the other hand, there's George Stephanopoulos.)

Often, as media watchdogs, we're less concerned about the small private influence each reporter has as an individual on one day in November than about all the other "votes" that they cast for the Democrats on the air, which can have a much greater influence. It means nothing to declare (a la Washington Post editor Len Downie) that one doesn't vote, but then offer in-kind contributions of favorable coverage in your day job.