What do you think the pros and cons are for a working journalist that makes political contributions?

If the person had a long record of appearing unbiased, I might still trust them. But as a journalist our 'citizen' lives aren't separated from our work. If there is breaking news, a journalist is not about to say, 'sorry, I'm  not on the job right now.'

I completely, totally disagree with this.

"The problem with that is it's incumbent upon us journalists to separate whatever views or biases we may have from our work and to give the public confidence that we can."

There is no such thing as an unbiased person--much less an unbiased journalist. We who cover current events every single day are keenly aware of what the actual truth of a matter is, and that naturally leads to a bias in favor of that truth.

I urge you to read "Balance as Bias" to understand why this notion of "fairness" in journalism is so damaging to our profession. Merely giving equal time to all sides, and theoretically acting as a mere dispassionate observer does not serve our public. That's not journalism, it's being a human camera.

Our job is to report facts. When the preponderance of fact is on one side or another, it is our job to report that. Or should we make a point of interviewing someone from the Flat Earth Society every time NASA does a launch?

Merely hiding our biases from the public does not serve them. I think it makes far more sense to have an annual disclosure of all potential political biases, from religion to campaign donations, for all editorial staff than it does to pretend we don't care about these things.

Unless we all want to work for Fox "News" and claim that giving airtime or column inches to completely fact-free crackpots is "balance," we shouldn't give in to the notion that refusing to have or state political opinions is any sort of journalistic goal.

If a journalist contributes to a campaign that he or she is covering, that's a big problem. If the beat is politics, that's still an issue. However, if a journalist is writing about completely different subject matter, such as community crime, education, sports or energy issues, it becomes less significant of an issue to me when I'm reading/listening/watching the news.

In my own activism/campaigning, I have found it frustrating to encounter journalists while doorknocking or calling and hear them say, "I can't support you because of my profession." While I can respect the fact that these citizens are upholding their professional ethical code, I find myself asking how they can be full participants in the civic community if they have to closet their beliefs in an arena where every vote and voice matters.

I think Shawna has commingled concepts that have little overlap. A commitment to truth is not the same as a financial commitment to the Democratic candidate for Congress from the 6th district.