It's all about appearances

A producer at CNN, Chez Pazienza, was fired for having a blog in which he expressed his liberal views. Mr. Pazienza writes:

I'm dead sure though that my superiors never concerned themselves with my ability or inability to remain objective at work, given my strong opinions; they worried only about an appearance of bias (specifically, a liberal bias),...

I noted a recent news story that, when it comes to Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons, it is the appearance that liberals find more important than the reality. It is the same here where it is the appearance, not the reality, that matters to CNN. Similarly, CBS, the New York Times, and many other news organization forbid journalists from (openly) making campaign contributions. They can't stop their journalists from having opinions, but they want to maintain the appearance of it being otherwise.

I would prefer that journalists be free to express their views. I find news sources to be more trustworthy if they are honest sources. But then, unlike CNN, I am more concerned about reality than about pretenses or appearances.