the political chasm in the newsroom.

According the recent Pew study of American media habits, Democrats and Republicans aren't on the same page. Nor are they in the same living room, nor are they perusing the same magazines at Barnes and Noble.

According the study, a significant number of Democrats and Republicans read news that caters to their beliefs. According to the study, "the gap between Republicans and Democrats in regular viewership of the nightly network news on ABC, CBS, or NBC is now 14 points, nearly three times as large as it was in 2004; currently, 38% of Democrats regularly watch compared with 24% of Republicans. There is a slightly smaller gap in the regular audience for NPR ­ 22% of Democrats listen regularly, compared with 13% of Republicans."

This begs the question-- whatever happened to journalistic objectivity? If our audience splits so cleanly between Republicans and Democrats, clearly journalists are doing something to attract partisan audiences. Whether it is the way we write, what we choose to cover and how we select quotes, every act of editing is an expression of politics. So what can we do to edit out politics from our copy? And is it worth it?

I only have more questions. Does writing without politics preclude a writer from being politically active? Most journalists I know have opinions which help inform and shape their writing. But there is a serious problem that occurs when we focus purely on our own opinions. One person cannot encompass a multiplicity of ideas, but a NEWSROOM CAN.

Herein lies the issue. Typically, people are more comfortable in work environments where others share their views, or in workplaces where discussion of politics and other tenuous issues is discouraged. The latter option doesn't work for news rooms, which ideally are hot beds for such conversation. Perhaps these tensions are what discourage conservative journalists from working at so-called liberal publications and vice versa. Perhaps then news rooms need to have extensive workshops on how to converse about tense issues.

As part 6 of the study shows, it's become increasingly easier for Americans to get their news though more personalized ways. Because of this, journalists must be wary of homogeneous news rooms. Diversity is important, but it's more than a race or ethnicity thing-- it's also ideological.