More from the influential Poynter Institute on the perception of bias, as opposed to bias, this time from Kelly McBride:

In the past two weeks I’ve been asked over and over if newsrooms should allow journalists to participate in caucuses and primaries where voters must publicly declare a political affiliation in order to get a ballot. Editors and news directors want to know what boundaries to set. Journalists everywhere get uncomfortable when it feels like their right to vote clashes with newsroom policies. I liked how Denver Post editor Greg Moore put it in his recent memo to staff. He said he would not prohibit folks from attending, but that he would prefer they hold back. He shares the concern that many editors have, namely that a record of the political affiliations will reinforce the perception that newsrooms are biased. It’s a legitimate worry, given the slipping credibility of professional journalists.

Again, it seems to me that the real question isn’t about the perception of bias, but about bias itself. Notice that McBride’s argument doesn’t even address the fact that the commanding majority of decision-makers in America’s top newsrooms are Democrats and a tiny number of them Republicans or conservatives. She doesn’t want to address the facts–and she doesn’t want readers to know what the facts are. The only reason to forbid journalists from voting in primaries and caucuses is to conceal their political affiliations from the public. Is that what journalism is about?