Journalistic ethics and campaign contributions

Journalists often hear charges that their stories are biased, but if they're doing their job, what the critics are more likely saying is that the story isn't slanted in the direction they would like it to be.

Occasionally, they hear complaints from both sides of an issue, which many writers wear as a badge of honor.

Former Gazette publisher and editor, Allen Strunk, upon hearing a source praise a particular reporter about a story, would later ask a question, half seriously. "OK, what did you leave out?"

Journalism schools and news organizations drill the concept of objectivity into their reporters with the goal of providing fair and accurate reports consumers can count on.

While opinion pages are reserved for opinion, the other pages are ideally used to present both sides of an issue.

News people don't give up their constitutional rights, but they do face certain restrictions when it comes to political activity, including contributions to candidates.

The New York Times ethics handbook prohibits staffers from giving or raising money for political candidates or election causes, to avoid "feeding a false impression that the paper is taking sides."

The Associated Press outright bans journalists from donating money to political organizations or political campaigns.

CNN says it does not allow editorial staff to contribute to campaigns or parties, as do most major newspapers and news organizations.

But few industries have faced as many changes in recent years as the news businesses, and we've never seen a presidential campaign like this one.

Donald Trump has made few friends in the media, banning certain networks from is events, suing the New York Times for libel and demanding a retraction, and promising to change laws to make it easier for public figures to win lawsuits against media that criticize them or cast them in a bad light.

Hillary Clinton has been more subtle in her attempts to control a press less critical to her campaign, but it's hard for working journalists to clear their minds of the image of her handlers literally roping off the press corps that was following her at a parade.

But if their news organizations have policies against contributing to political campaigns, a lot of today's news people didn't get the memo.

According to the Center for Public Integrity, which looked into presidential campaign contributions between Jan. 1, 2015 and Aug. 30, 2016, journalists contributed $14,373 to Donald Trump's campaign, and $381,814 to Hillary Clinton's.

Of a number of journalists contacted for a story republished in Editor & Publisher, several said they had contributed to particular candidates in order to attend important fund-raisers, for example.

Or, they were simply exercising their constitutional rights and it wouldn't affect their reporting.

Two Indiana University-Blooming professors found in 2014 that 28 percent of journalists said they affiliated with the Democratic Party, 7 percent with the Republican and 14 percent an "other" party.

The rest, more than 50 percent, say they're not affiliated with any political party.

For most of the campaign, Trump boasted of self-funding his campaign, which accounts for some of the disparity.

But with journalist contributions running nearly 30-1 in favor of Hillary Clinton, it's hard not to believe they're not putting their money where their hearts are.