Exercising conscience
Newspaper Guild President Linda Foley hit the nail on the head. "The ability of journalists to exercise conscience is much more important than anything they believe or any beliefs they bring to their job," she said. "It's credibility, more than objectivity, that's important for us in our industry. ... There has to be a culture in newsrooms that allows a journalist to have a free and open discussion." There are a few ideas here, so I'll briefly discuss each. Having good ethics and making good judgment calls is essential for journalists to be successful and perpetuate journalistic ideals. It doesn't matter whether a journalist votes red or blue or whether that person believes in a higher power; those beliefs can be put aside when reporting on an issue. I don't know this…