The MSNBC report about 144 journalists donating to leftwing causes 9 to 1 over conservative causes has resulted in news staffers being let go, including a reporter and a cartoonist.
KTPM Omaha fired reporter Calvert Collins, who had posted her photo with a congressional candidate on her Facebook page with the caption, "Vote for him Tuesday, November 7!"
"In a way, I'm glad this happened to me at age 23, and not 33," Collins said, "and I will learn from it."
Being fired is probably not the lesson she expected to learn.
Freelance editorial cartoonist Paul Fell will no longer be drawing cartoons for the Lincoln, Nebraska "Journal Star" due in large part to snide comments he made when it was disclosed that he had donated $450 to Maxine Moul, a Democrat candidate for Congress. Editor Kathleen Rutledge wrote,
"Fell’s comments make it clear he does not care about guarding this newspaper’s trust with readers...We don’t think he should treat our credibility with such disdain."
And finally, the Spokane "Spokesman-Review" decided to drop the "New York Times" ethics column written by Randy Cohen before it even started running this week. Cohen donated $585 to MoveOn.org in violation of his employer's policy against making such political donations. According to MSNBC, Cohen had thought the political action group was "nonpartisan."
Also according to the MSNBC update, the Fort Worth "Star-Telegram" is going to begin reviewing its ethics policies. I have a feeling a lot of news organizations are going to be taking a closer look at possible conflicts of interest when it comes to political donations by journalists and other newsroom staffers.
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Comments Policy
My goodness, there are conseq
June 25, 2007 - 18:52 ET by ThisnThatMy goodness, there are consequences for actions, even within the MSM.
Now, when are they going to start reviewing the staff based upon the inaccurate reports and blatant hate that they write?
And, does this mean a new leaf is turned -- or is this just a smokescreen and an opportunity to hire even more left-leaning people, but with a newly enforced standard regarding donations? Time will tell.
But as the old joke says: "What do you have when biased, liberal staffers are fired? A good start".
My guess is a 9 to 1 ratio
June 25, 2007 - 19:01 ET by RESTLESS 1My guess is a 9 to 1 ratio wasn't good enough. And no, there are not consequences for actions in the msm, there are consequences for gettig caught. Big difference.
When will the democrat congre
June 25, 2007 - 19:08 ET by BufordWhen will the democrat congress DEMAND an investigation into the fireings. Were they politically motivated? what was Karl Rove's involvement?
The nearest thing to eternal life we will ever see on this earth is a government program...........Ronald Reagan
I love that tag line. I had
June 25, 2007 - 19:26 ET by RESTLESS 1I love that tag line. I had forgotten about that one. lol.
....Not a truer line spoken.U
June 25, 2007 - 19:36 ET by bigtimer....Not a truer line spoken.
Unfortunately.
I've got no problem with jour
June 25, 2007 - 19:54 ET by GalvanicI've got no problem with journalists donating to political campaigns, provided there is full-disclosure of what campaigns/lobby groups got their money. That will tell me where they are coming from, while not violating their free speech. Imagine how Rather-gate may have exploded on more than just Rather and Mary Maples if it were discovered that they donated money to the DNC that Mapels was feeding the story to.
If journalists are subjected to full-disclosure, MSM may even hire a few conservatives just to attain the semblance of fairness.
Exactly right!
June 25, 2007 - 21:26 ET by c5thenHaving a "policy" of no donations to political groups or firing someone after it's learned that they donated is not the answer. restricting someones right is ALWAYS wrong. Full disclosure is the answer. Trying to stop these donations is actualy trying to cover up and hide the political leaning of the journalists. I don't want a false sense of non-biased media, I want to know where the ideology of the reporters, journalists and anchors stands.
The day that "politician" became a career choice is the day we started losing the Republic
It can be a slippery slope to
June 26, 2007 - 09:02 ET by Hero SquadIt can be a slippery slope to "legislate" behavior, for sure. But at some point, an employer needs to be able to protect his product when he believes a behavior might have a negative impact. It's not that much different than having a dress code or an ethics code. So long as the employee is made clearly aware of the policies and possible punishments, and the legality of the restrictions are cleared, I think it should be up to the discretion of the newspaper to determine policies such as these.
When I was a newspaper reporter and editor, I strived to make sure my politics were unknown, because as far as I felt, they were irrelevant to my writing. I may not have been perfect in my attempts, but I think in the end, few people caught what side of the political fence I leaned to (though I'm sure many assumed wrongly simply because I was a member of the media.) I think a lot of reporters are able to do this. I've worked with liberals who did a good job of not letting their bias' show in their writing (not that they didn't unleash the hounds inside the newsroom, mind you!) Unfortunately, not enough of them are able to do this. Or simply don't want to.
*****
"I'm sorry, you must have mistaken me for a clown that gives a damn!" - Sticky the Clown
this should have read:Accordi
June 25, 2007 - 22:08 ET by Conservative in the Artsthis should have read:
According to MSNBC, the political action group (moveon.org) was "nonpartisan."
and according to Dan Blather: "even an honest man can lie"
CITA,Did you see the video in
June 25, 2007 - 22:13 ET by BlondeCITA,
Did you see the video in the forums....Dan Rather watching Katie? It might make an industry guy like you laugh your brittany spaniel off!
Just a hint. It's under "Mean Gene's fav's"....down on the bottom. Trust me, you'll love it! LOL.
P.S. Hope the muttsky is skunkless....:>)
she is so far this year. (yea
June 25, 2007 - 22:20 ET by Conservative in the Artsshe is so far this year. (yea!) But my softball team stinks to high heaven this year. We just got our first win tonight. we're 1-9-1 :(
p.s. check you mail soon
CITA,My first year at the Uni
June 25, 2007 - 22:24 ET by BlondeCITA,
My first year at the University of Florida, we were Ohhhh, ten and one. (0-10-1).
As you well know, in Hollywood, it's all in the cadence of the phrase.
Glad to hear the mutsky is skunk-free. Mine (my parents') are annoying. They run the neighborhood and drive me insane!
P.S. My GATORS won two (actually three) championships in a row. :D
Surprise
June 25, 2007 - 22:15 ET by PawpawNGosh, I thought each place was firing the 1 that gave to Repubs!!
rehab for repub donators
June 25, 2007 - 22:50 ET by Pragmatic-ManNah, they just send them to rehab.
No No
June 25, 2007 - 22:54 ET by PawpawNNo that can't be. We can never say "We're Sorry" and go to rehab. We have to be banished from the face of the earth!
"In a way, I'm glad this
June 26, 2007 - 05:53 ET by richflanj"In a way, I'm glad this happened to me at age 23, and not 33," Collins said, "and I will learn from it."
Two questions:
1. Why didn't she learn that she was not supposed to be biased in journalism school? (My guess is that the subject is not/has never been taught.)
2. What did she "learn" - bias is bad and she should try to be more objective, or that she should be more covert is her efforts? (I'm betting on the latter.)
"The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously." --Hubert Humphrey
I actually feel a little bi
June 26, 2007 - 07:41 ET by cjbreischI actually feel a little bit of sympathy here. I don't think that people should be fired for that. I really feel that it's wrong that so many news operations seem to have restrictions on that sort of thing. I think that if newsies want to contribute they should be allowed to.
As long as it's public.
In fact, I'd rather see it that way. If we had a list of 2,000, or 20,000 names of donors rather than 144, and it was still 90%+ Democrat, the cries of liberal bias in the media would be deafening.
And maybe they'd actually start trying for some diversity.