It’s “disheartening” that 25 news employees of Gannett newspapers in Wisconsin signed Gov. Scott Walker recall petitions, says Green Bay Press-Gazette publisher Kevin Corrado. “It has caused us to examine how this could have happened, how we will address it and how we will prevent it from happening again,” he tells readers. “We now are in the process of taking disciplinary measures and reviewing supplemental ethics training for all news employees.”
A number of the journalists told their editors they did not consider signing the petition a political act. They equated it to casting a ballot in an election. But we do not make that distinction.
Is it not an ethics violation, too, to claim authorship of something you didn’t write? Compare this column “written by Richard Roesgen,” executive editor of the Fond du Lac Reporter, with this column by Green Bay Press-Gazette publisher Kevin Corrado and this one from Appleton Post-Crescent publisher Genia Lovett. Many of the passages are identical.
* Journalists erred in signing Walker recall petitions
* Read what Gannett Blog visitors say about the petition brouhaha
(This post was updated to correct the number employees who signed the petition.)
