I learned today that the wife of the foreign minister of Poland is a columnist for the Washington Post. Or, should I say, the husband of a Washington Post columnist is the foreign minister of Poland. (I also learned that said columnist is not a fan of Hilary Clinton–perhaps not the most diplomatic thing to say right now, foreign policy-wise?)
What I’m wondering, though, is how common this sort of thing is, for a major journalist to have open political connections. Here I’m not thinking of retired politicians who write for the press (an op-ed by Newt Gingrich, a column by Eliot Spitzer) or pundits and politicos such as William F. Buckley and Pat Buchanan who appear on TV, but someone with this kind of political role who has what seems to be more of a straight journalist job.
I’m certainly not trying to imply that there’s anything wrong here–I’m sure the Post has set careful rules to avoid conflicts of interest–I’m just wondering how often this occurs, and whether it’s more common now than in earlier decades. I recall seeing occasional conflict-of-interest items of this sort before, but always on a case-by-case basis.