Reply #51: Everyone needs to make his or her own decision about the cubicle ...

[gauguin57]

... but I made sure I NEVER had anything that showed my politics in my former newspaper cubicle. And I didn't cover politics.

We had politicos and town fathers (and mothers) walking through the office all the time, for interviews and such ... and if someone has a pro- or anti-anyone sticker in his or her cubicle, it reflects on the whole office. That's the way it is. Next time the paper publishes an editorial criticizing some political figure or party, the person who saw that pro- or anti- sticker in the office will tell a bunch of people, and suddently it's "well, you know the paper is against Bush," or whatever.

I'm surprised a newspaper office allows you to keep that in your cubicle. ... when a picture of the local right-wing congressman with a "clever caption" under it would be floating around the newsroom, it would have a shelf life of about 30 seconds in my former newsroom. That's just not permitted. Like I say in my post below: When you become a newspaper journalist -- regardless of your beat -- you must follow the ethics policy of your paper.

Fortunately for me ... at least temporarily ... I'm not a working journalist, so I have a few months during which I can actually campaign for Kerry!!!