They're Back

• Author: admin
• Filed under: Uncategorized
• Date: Jan 25,2008

We hope on Monday to reopen the blogging by Democrat Kyle Kutuchief and Republican Ben Keeler. There are no guarantees we won’t hit more bumps, but we’re determined to give it a try.

There are legal and ethical issues for us as a news organization, and in the interest of transparency, we’ll explain what caused us to pause for a few days, and how we will proceed.

There are state and federal laws regulating the flow of money into political campaigns. Ethics and fairness were a foundation for those laws.

For one thing, the resources of corporations cannot be used to support individual campaigns. When we agreed that Kutuchief and Keeler would be paid as independent contractors to blog on our site, we had to make sure that they did not address races in which they have a vested interest. If they did, critics might argue that resources of the Akron Beacon Journal and Ohio.com were being used to fund a political campaign.

News organizations attempt to maintain an even tougher standard than the law so that those who read us know that our news and opinions are based on a full set of facts and not affected by factors that could result in personal gain. Reporters and editors are not permitted to write about issues in which they have personal involvement.

Blogging is a new form of expression that doesn’t require the collaborative process that occurs in a newsroom nor does it require the disconnect from the political process that we as a newsroom expect.

In this experiment, we asked Kutuchief and Keeler to disclose their political affiliations so that our readers would know they do, indeed, have partisan positions. Unfortunately for all of us, there was a misunderstanding on how that was to be done.

When we restart next week, you will be able to click on their names and find biographical information fully disclosing their work history, education and political activity.

Their mission is to comment on politics important to Ohioans – from their distinct partisan positions. However, if they are playing an active role in a campaign – such as working for a candidate or running for office – they cannot use our resources in an attempt to persuade voters, and they cannot be paid. Pay and commentary may resume once that active role in the campaign ceases.

Indeed, this is a limitation of freedom of speech. Kutuchief and Keeler know that they have a choice – maintain their own sites where they have complete freedom – or experiment with us in creating a central location for Ohio politics and elections that promotes public discourse while staying within the spirit of the law.

In the next several months there will be plenty of fodder for these two friends who sit on opposite sides of the aisle, even if they have to avoid comment on a couple particular races.
So, let's have at it.

The editors of Ohio.com and the Akron Beacon Journal