It's 2008. Do You Know Who Your Reporter Is Voting For?

IT'S 2008. DO YOU KNOW WHO YOUR REPORTER IS VOTING FOR?
[SOURCE: Time, AUTHOR: James Poniewozik]
[Commentary] Why don't political writers covering campaigns reveal who they have voted for? Showing your cards in public can make it hard to get access to sources, the argument goes; it will make readers suspicious; you and your publication/network/website will drown in charges of bias. Pretty much all the reasons, though, boil down to the fact that revealing your preferences is a royal pain in the ... But journalistic practices shouldn't be judged by whether they make our jobs harder; they should be judged by whether they serve the audience better. Modern, mainstream, American political reporting is based on maintaining the transparently bogus illusion of neutrality: that reporters do not care about the outcomes of elections that they spend far too much of their lives covering. It is also based in the legitimate, and true, premise of fairness: that people can have preferences and yet not use their work in service of those preferences. Showing one's voting cards would shatter the bogus illusion of neutrality; but it would not only serve the premise of fairness, it could actually help media outlets convince a skeptical public that fairness is possible.
http://www.time-blog.com/tuned_in/2008/02/do_you_want_to_know_who_report.html

* Should reporters vote?
http://time-blog.com/work_in_progress/2008/02/should_reporters_vote.html