Now, in the world of punditry, such ties don't have to bind. People with skin in the game opine all the time. They are rightly called to account when they fail to fully disclose their ties, but otherwise it's not considered an insurmountable problem.
The world of straight news reporting operates by very different rules, however. The Los Angeles Times has deprived the nation of the wonderful news analysis and deep reporting of Ron Brownstein this presidential cycle because he is married to a staffer for John McCain, which could have created the appearance of a conflict-of-interest in his presidential coverage. Instead, he now writes for The Los Angeles Times opinion page, where he's made sure to disclose his wife's role. Granted, the Times Magazine is much more likely than the rest of the paper (Op-Ed page excepted) to publish essays and reports from opinion writers, academics, and others with a background in the political or policy arena. Still, one would think The New York Times' disclosure rules would, at the very least, require a writer married to a foreign policy adviser to a Clinton competitor to disclose this to readers of his critique of Clinton's foreign policy approach.
Gerth, to his credit, disclosed his wife's job at the end of Her Way, and even sat out reporting on the 1996 presidential campaign, during which Dodd chaired the Democratic National Commitee, because of it, according this 2001 Columbia Journalism Review story. Here's his disclosure from the book on Clinton, which Gerth dedicates to his wife, Janice O'Connell, and daughter Jessica:
Since the mid 1980s she has also served as a foreign policy adviser to Senator Christopher J. Dodd, who is a member of the committee.That's the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which is currently chaired by another Clinton competitor, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden. Clinton competitor Barack Obama also sits on that committee, as does potential third party presidential candidate and Republican Chuck Hagel. O'Connell has worked for the committee since 1977. The Times Magazine omits Gerth's wife's job from its end-of-story disclosure. It would seem to be a particularly relevant disclosure, given that Gerth and Van Natta rely heavily on anonymous sources, including, they reveal in the Times, "dozens of interviews with ... past and present senators and their aides."
--Garance Franke-Ruta
