Sunday, November 11, 2007

Is having political bloggers ethical?










This Poynter online article brings up the ethical question: should a newspaper be showcasing writers that have contributed to a certain political campaign? With many political bloggers not serving as professional journalists, the article also addresses the showcasing of them as well.

Poynter reporters Mallary Tenore and Naughton Fellow asked five political editors from papers around the country about the issue. Responses range from controlling the bloggers' behavior by certain guidelines set by the paper, to welcoming their partisan blog contributions regardless of what they're behavior is toward a certain political campaign.

So what do you think? Under a newspaper's payroll, should a blogger not be able to financially contribute to a campaign? Does this cause an ethical problem with the newspaper's voice or does it matter at all?

1 comment:

www.mallaryjeantenore.wordpress.com said...

Hi Chris,

Glad you found my article about political blogging interesting. There are some comments in the reader feedback section of my essay that might also be of interest to you: http://www.poynter.org/article_feedback/article_feedback_list.asp?user=390253&id=132668.

Happy reading,
~Mallary (Naughton fellow)