Within you beats the cold heart of a neutral

Sure to become all-time essential reading for budding or established journalists alike is this month's piece from 2007 US start-up The Politico, ‘Should Journalists Vote?’

I conducted my own little straw poll on that question using the many comments left in response to that article:

Yes: 51%
No: 4%
Doesn't matter: 45%

('Yes' vote includes those who recommended voting in national but not local elections.)
('Doesn't matter' vote includes the large number who thought the media were so biased as to make the issue irrelevant.)

So there you have it. It's okay to vote as long as you have some kind of rigour to your style that keeps hold of the facts. The ‘doesn't matter’ category is well represented by one comment from David Walton which goes, ‘ “fairest of journalists” has as about as much significance as “fairest of pit-vipers.” ’