Conflicts of Interest   

San Francisco Chronicle tech columnist Henry Norr is fired after he participates in an anti-war rally.

The San Francisco Chronicle fires tech columnist and reporter Henry Norr, who took part in an antiwar protest, got arrested and used sick time to cover his day in jail.

Norr, 57, who had been with the paper nearly four years, says he was initially suspended for falsifying his time card, though he says he had told his bosses in an e-mail about what he planned to do. After Norr turned down a buyout offer because of its conditions, he was fired for "gross misconduct" regarding the time card and for "persistent violations of the Chronicle's conflict of interest standards"--which Norr says may refer to his participation in protests during his suspension. A Chronicle spokesman says the paper doesn't discuss personnel issues.

At the time of Norr's arrest, the paper's ethics policy, which acknowledges that employees may want to take part in political affairs, said workers "should consult with the executive editor or his designee" when involvement could create the appearance of a conflict of interest. A clarification issued after Norr's suspension prohibits all editorial employees from participating in war-related political activities, says Doug Cuthbertson, executive officer of the Northern California Media Guild, which has filed a grievance over Norr's termination and another seeking negotiation of the new policy language.

"I think most news organizations would either directly or indirectly discourage that kind of activity," says Gary Hill, chair of SPJ's ethics committee and director of investigations at KSTP-TV in Minneapolis. He says that while some would argue that because Norr wasn't covering the war, he wasn't compromising his or the newspaper's credibility, "there are few issues more contentious right now than this war. For certain people, they're just going to...say, 'See, we said that your paper was biased and now your employees are proving it.' "

"I'm absolutely, deeply committed to balance and fairness," Norr says. But "if people on a voluntary basis want to express their views, part of me thinks that's a good thing, that the best journalism comes from people who are actively engaged...with their communities."