The Green Bay Press-Gazette is making a full disclosure to readers, of a breach of ethics on the part of some of their reporters: Signing the recall petitions against Gov. Scott Walker.
This comes on the heels of a report the same paper published last week, announcing that 29 circuit court judges throughout the state had signed the papers to trigger a recall against Walker.
The paper says in its disclosure that none of the employees involved, either at the Press-Gazette itself or in any of the other Gannett newspapers in the states, have anything to do with regular political coverage or the investigative piece on the judges. But they nevertheless view this as beyond the pale for the reporters involved, by creating even the impression of political affiliation.
The key quote, from a special column published late Friday night by Green Bay Press-Gazette president and publisher Kevin Corrado:
In the interest of full transparency, we are informing readers today that 25 Gannett Wisconsin Media journalists, including seven at the Green Bay Press-Gazette, signed the recall petition. It was wrong, and those who signed the petition were in breach of Gannett’s principles of ethical conduct.
It is little consolation to us that none of the editorial employees who signed a petition has any involvement in our news or political coverage or decides how those stories are developed and presented. None of the employees serve on the investigative team. Had they been directly involved, we would identify them.
But the fact that any of Gannett Wisconsin Media’s 223 news employees did sign the petition is disheartening. It has caused us to examine how this could have happened, how we will address it and how we will prevent it from happening again. Most important is informing our readers and being as open as possible.
The employees involved likened the petitions to voting — which journalists certainly do not give up the right to do — but the editorial disagrees: “A Gannett journalist can’t uphold these principles and at the same time post a candidate’s sign in the yard, or sign a candidate’s nomination papers, or join a campaign rally, or sign a petition advocating a recall election.”
