Should I support Change?

There is no doubt that this country requires some sort of change as far as the path it is on politically. Personally, I have finally decided to steadfastly support Obama in the political race. After this decision and perusing both he and McCain's Web sites to compare and contrast, I thought it would be a good idea to actively support Obama's campaign. I proceeded to sign up for the support portion of his site before the thought even occurred to me that perhaps, considering my career, giving all my personal information to a candidate -- in what is shaping up to be a very heated political race -- wasn't a very good idea.

The issue of journalists and political alliance has been wrestled with since perhaps the birth of the idea of journalistic objectivity. Can a journalist be objective and a passionate supporter of a political candidate or social cause? Many news organizations and papers have rules within their codes of conduct explicitly detailing the restrictions of their employees' political affiliation or action. The New York Times Company Policy on Ethics in Journalism outlines what is expected of any employee.
Section 89 details: "Journalists do not take part in politics. While staff members are entitled to vote and to register in party primaries, they must do nothing that might raise questions about their professional neutrality or that of our news operations. In particular, they may not campaign for, demonstrate for, or endorse candidates, ballot causes or efforts to enact legislation. They may not wear campaign buttons or themselves display any other insignia of partisan politics."

In theory, journalists sacrifice certain privileges in order to remain objective or at least in order to perpetuate the guise of objectivity. Other commentators on this issue are a bit more lenient in their thoughts. Randy Cohen, a columnist for The New York Times, was asked about this topic on NPR in 2004. Cohen, even though he is required to follow NYTimes standards, said that bottom line a journalist covering an event should have no affiliation with it. If a movie critic were to openly support a politician that would be acceptable, however if a political reporter were to do so, it would be a conflict of interest. That's Journalism 101: Don't cover anything you have a connection to, including family, special interests, social causes, etc.

In my position, I don't report... usually. I do however choose which stories go into the paper, where they go and how much attention they are given. Never at my paper have I ever heard a whisper of a code of conduct regarding political affiliations, however my journalistic morality is vexed at the fact that I may have jeopardized my guise of objectivity. Not saying that I do not strive to be utterly objective in my work, I do. It irks me that the thought of my commitments as a journalist didn't come before my desire to support a political candidate. I'm sure that if this sort of topic had ever been discussed in the workplace, I would've thought better of it. So, as much as I'd like to completely and actively support my candidate, I won't and can't morally bring myself to do so. This is my penance. I am outing the fact that I do support Obama, but I am wholeheartedly committing to my journalistic objectivity... even if that means sacrificing participation in any events to assist his campaign. I came out of college with a deep-seated sense of journalistic responsibility to objectively presenting the news. It saddens me that I seem to have lost some of that to the mismanagement of the newsroom in which I work. At least the light clicked on before I was clad in Obama gear standing on the corner of Main Street holding a "Vote for Change" sign.