Writing is to a writer, like breathing. It is something they must do and to ask them to be completly unbiased is rediculus.

My comments address the seemingly never-ending struggle to obfuscate the topic and thereby effectively forever block introduction of ethics into journalism.

Invariably the topic is broached in an excruciatingly convoluted and complex manner. It almost seems as though this approach is due either to: an impossibly sincere attempt to address all possible eventualities that may lead to not being ethical or it any be this is due to a nefarious motive to make it impossible to ever attain ethics in journalism.

If the former, then I personally believe the ethical ground-rules can be reduced to a few strikingly simple axioms, in lieu of continuing the life struggle and career some have made of this topic to develop same without the least whiff of success.

If the latter, then journalists should look the developers of ethics criteria in the eye and label the effort the sham it is.

One, ethics in news journalism boils down to the taking of personal responsibility. If we are honest (a subjective characteristic – inbred or developed through persistence) with ourselves, if we have a conscious we all know when we are or are not being ethical. So do the readers.

Two – simply put, being ethical in journalism is being factual, never opinionated. Not being opinionated encompasses not only content but also the selections of topics.

Individuals who choose an approach not governed by these axioms are not being ethical. Neither the individual nor a supposedly compensating bureaucracy of a group of overseers who refuse to accept the simple criteria – being factual vs. opinionated – will ever in sum total produce an ethical product. One loose cannon will spoil the product, whether reporter, editor, or publisher. There can never enough

In fact, for many years I’ve been telling people, “The only unbiased journalist is one who agrees with me on everything.”

So yeah, I have biases. I prefer Linux to Windows, right to might, and have a strong tendence to support the underdog over the oppressor.

I like dogs. I like cats, too, but not as much as I like dogs.

I believe the West Wight Potter 15 is the cutest small, fiberglass cruising sailboat there is. (Disclosure: I own one.)

The ideal woman is named Debbie. She’s 5’4″, has dark brown hair and eyes, and light brown skin. (And she’s married to me; other men may have other women they feel are more ideal than Debbie, but that’s THEIR problem.)

If Barack Obama becomes president, I think he’ll take up smoking again (if he hasn’t already, in secret).

And no, I did not vote for Obama in the primary. I probably would have, but I live in Florida and the national Democratic Party didn’t want votes from Florida so I re-registered as a Republican and voted for John McCain.

Now I’m registered as an independent again, which has pretty much been my natural state for the last decade or so.

I got out of the newspaper business 13 years ago, after 22 years as an editor and reporter. And just in time, too.