Accepting the exceptions to the rules

Bias in the media? Nah. Oh, well, there's this little tidbit from Media Matters.

While reporting on the 2004 presidential campaign for The Boston Globe, technology reporter Hiawatha Bray apparently wrote posts for several weblogs in which he declared his support for President Bush, attacked Sen. John Kerry, and bolstered discredited allegations by the anti-Kerry group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (now Swift Vets and POWs for Truth).

Well, people are allowed to express their personal opinions...oh, but wait. It might be an ethics violation:

The Boston Globe is owned by The New York Times Company, whose ethics handbook, Ethical Journalism: A Handbook of Values and Practices for the News and Editorial Departments, lays out specific guidelines for the political behavior of its journalists, such as: "Journalists have no place on the playing fields of politics. Staff members are entitled to vote, but they must do nothing that might raise questions about their professional neutrality or that of The Times. In particular, they may not campaign for, demonstrate for, or endorse candidates, ballot causes or efforts to enact legislation."

What's even worse about this, is that every time one of these stories breaks, the Right continues to denounce the so-called liberal bias in the press, saying that it's fine for these blatantly biased conservative journalists to break the rules because the liberals run everything. Well, at some point, the Right needs to have a reality check. In the past three years, we've had numerous stories of conservative bias in the media and conservative journalists violating ethics rules, demonstrating a clear bias in what's supposed to be objective reporting. And the argument that these instances are just the exception that proves the rule only gets you so far, until these "exceptions" become so prevalent, they clearly prove themselves to BE the rule.