On 7/22/2020 3:53 PM, Sammy Jones wrote:
> My reason is that I'm a journalist who covers these events, and cannot be seen to taking a position or a side on them...or frankly to be part of a group that is taking a side.

I'm not going to reply to Sammy's other comments; I'll leave that to
others, but this one calls for some discussion.

It's true that network news correspondents (and, for all I know, local
news reporters) are forbidden to endorse candidates or take public
positions on issues of public controversy. But I think sammy takes that
one step too far by stating that membership in organizations that take
positions on candidates or matters of public controversy is forbidden.
The late Walter Cronkite, as a visible and ptominent journalist never
publicly endorsed a candidate, and that's proper.

But he was a member of an organization, the Screen Actors Guild labor
union, which was and is part of the AFL-CIO, and the AFL-CIO has
endorsed candidates and taken public positions since I was a kid, with
no censure descending on Mr. Cronkite or any of his colleagues. Print
journalists, some of them, belong to the American Newspaper Guild,
another union which is part of the AFL-CIO.

Mr. Jones is entirely free to decide not take a stand on matters of
public controversy; that's his constitutional right. But for him to
further state that he cannot ethically be a member of an organization
which takes such positions is an exaggeration, and simply not true.

Peace,
Paul Stamler

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