SF Chron’s Norr suspended after participating in war protest

Romenesko Letters/San Jose Mercury News
San Francisco Chronicle technology columnist Henry Norr (left) says he was suspended without pay after getting arrested in “a peaceful civil disobedience” against the war. “The offense the Chronicle is charging me with is falsifying my timecard, but this is a bogus, after-the-fact cover for an act of political retaliation and an attempt to intimidate other employees,” Norr writes in an e-mail. “For Thursday, the day I spent in jail, I took a sick day. I did so because I was sick — heartsick over the beginning of the war, nauseated by the lies and the arrogance and the stupidity that led to it, and deeply depressed by the death and destruction it would bring.”
> J-SCHOOL ASSOCIATE DEAN CYNTHIA GORNEY SAYS the question of whether a journalist forfeits rights to fully participate in public debate is “an enormously complicated question. Should a reporter have the right to hold political views, to vote, to quietly contribute to political campaigns? To most people the answer is yes. On the other hand, should a staff reporter assigned to cover a political issue take a position on the board of an advocacy group directly involved in that issue? Most everyone says no.”
> Read the Chron’s conflict of interest policy memo (Romenesko Memos)