Gannett Wisconsin Media Journalists Sign Recall Petitions

Transparency can be a bitch.

Just when Gannett Wisconsin Media received recognition for uncovering that 29 Wisconsin judges signed recall petitions against Governor Scott Walker, we learn that 25 Gannett media journalists did the same thing.

From the Appleton Post-Crescent:

Last week, the Gannett Wisconsin Media Investigative Team broke a story that appeared in The Post-Crescent, exposing 29 circuit court judges who signed petitions to recall Gov. Scott Walker. It was a story we were proud to bring to you. It was watchdog journalism in its finest sense, a role we take seriously.

Today, in the interest of full transparency, we are informing you that 25 Gannett Wisconsin Media journalists, including nine at The P-C, also signed the Walker recall petitions. It was wrong, and those who signed were in breach of Gannett's Principles of Ethical Conduct for Newsrooms.

The principle at stake is our core belief that journalists must make every effort to avoid behavior that could raise doubts about their journalistic neutrality. Political activity is foremost.

It is of little consolation to us that none of the news employees who signed petitions is involved with directing or reporting political news coverage. (None of the employees serves on the investigative team, nor are any of the Appleton employees reporters or assigning news editors.) The fact that any of our 223 Wisconsin news employees signed the petition is disheartening. It has caused us to examine deeply how this happened, how we will address it and how we will prevent future breaches.

First and foremost, we decided to inform our readers and be as open as possible. We have decided not to name the employees. Had they had direct connection to political reporting we would have made a different decision.

We are now in the process of addressing discipline and presenting supplemental ethics training for all news employees.

A number of the journalists told us they did not consider signing the petition a political act. They equated it to casting a ballot in an election, something they have every right to do. But we see a distinction.

Yes, all citizens, including journalists, have a right to hold their own opinions about political issues and to share those opinions with their colleagues, friends or family. Personal opinions are part of human nature. However, journalists who work in a professional news organization must hold themselves to a higher public standard. That is, journalists have a first responsibility to be trusted.

Poor Gannett Wisconsin Media. They were riding high on their big story about the political activity and misconduct of the 29 Wisconsin judges.

Now, they have to address their own ethical shortcomings.

If we've learned anything in recent years, it's that mainstream media members cannot be trusted to be fair.

More often than not, they allow their political views, invariably Leftist, to color their reporting.