Today Wisconsin State Journal Editor John Smalley publicly shamed Steve Apps for exercising his right to sign the recall petition. (And, yes, it is right: According to the Wisconsin constitution no one -- including you Mr. Smalley -- can "hamper, restrict or impair the right of recall.")
According to Smalley, when Apps signed the recall he broke the State Journal's code of ethics:
Participation in public affairs or events that may leave the impression that news judgment is being influenced by activism is prohibited.
Of course, nobody would have known Apps signed the recall petition if Tea Party folks hadn't taken the unusual step of putting all the petition signers in a searchable database and Smalley hadn't taken the unusual step of searching the databse to find Apps name.
So, if we're going to unusual steps to find out if people at the state journal are participating in things that "might leave the impression that news judgemen is being influenced" then lets look at other things in the public domain. Like Facebook.
Both Smalley and publisher Bill Johnston have facebook pages that are open to the public. It doesn't take long to figure out both are rightwing loons.
On Johnston's page it says he has "friended" Tommy Thompson's page. On Smalley's page it lists his rightwing, evangelical church, which touts on their web page every conservative view you can imagine.
In addition, in communications outside of the paper (in an email to me) Johnston has used rightwing terminology that clearly indentify his ideology, such as referring to people that are pro-choice as being "pro-abortion."
All of these "actions" that the Editor and Publisher have taken are far and away more flagrant public displays of ideology than anything Apps came close to doing when he quietly signed the recall petition.