March 15, 2004

Grade the News
San Francisco Chronicle editors decided that Rachel Gordon and Liz Mangelsdorf shouldn’t continue to cover the same-sex marriage story after recently getting married. “The issue here is most definitely not the integrity of the journalists themselves,” writes editor Phil Bronstein. “Nor is it about gay and lesbian rights, even as the story itself is. (Rachel and Liz disagree on this point in particular, and with the decision in general). Nor is it about the paper determining whether anyone should get married or not. We can’t, shouldn’t and won’t determine that. …But the issue is the integrity and credibility of the paper, as well as conflict and the perception of conflict.”

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From 1999 to 2011, Jim Romenesko maintained the Romenesko page for the Poynter Institute, a Florida-based non-profit school for journalists. Poynter hired him in August…
Jim Romenesko

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