Press Box calls for other journalists to come clean and names names. Click here . Downie, executive editor of the Washington Post , is well known for believing that in the service of objectivity a journalist in his position should not vote. Writing on the Post op-ed page a couple weeks ago, Downie went even further. He said he does not even allow himself the luxury of deciding whom he would vote for if he was into that sort of thing.
Journalists are still citizens, with the rights and duties of citizenship.
Journalists are also people, for the most part, and people naturally develop opinions about the world around them. This is not a capacity you can turn on and off like a switch. The critical faculties that make for a good journalist probably make purging yourself of all relevant opinion even less plausible. Downie is certainly right that there is no point in not voting officially if you're voting mentally. But in concluding that he therefore shouldn't even vote mentally, he is buying into the fallacy that having an opinion is the same as having a bias.