The conflict-of-interest controversy surrounding a Dane County judge who signed a Walker recall petition is apparently only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to impartiality issues swirling around the Walker recall effort. In recent weeks, dozens of other judges across the state have been exposed for endorsing the recall, despite ethical obligations to remain neutral on political issues.
But judges may not be alone when it comes to feigning political impartiality.
Consider this headline in The Daily Caller on Monday: “Judges discarded impartiality by signing recall petitions, say journalists who signed recall petitions.”
In an open letter, Genia Lovett, publisher of the Appleton Post-Crescent newspaper, admitted that 25 Gannett Wisconsin Media employees, including nine at the Post-Crescent, had signed recall petitions and many of the employees saw nothing wrong with their conduct, the Daily Caller reports.
The news comes less than a month after Post-Crescent reporters revealed that about 12 percent of the state’s county level judges had signed a recall petition, something many critics claim is a breach of judicial ethics because judges are supposed to remain, or at least appear, impartial on politics.
The same supposedly goes for journalists, who are expected to cover political issues with equal attention to both conservative and liberal perspectives.
While Gannett isn’t releasing the names of its employees who signed recall petitions, Lovett claims that “None of the employees serves on the investigative team (that uncovered the potential judge bias), nor are any of the Appleton employees reporters or assigning news editors.”
Regardless, she acknowledged, “It was wrong, and those who signed were in breach of Gannett’s Principles of Ethical Conduct for Newsrooms,” in her open letter.
The journalists involved in the debacle are allegedly undergoing “supplemental ethics training.”
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