Staff members must be sensitive that perfectly proper political activity by their spouses, family or companions may nevertheless create conflicts of interest or

Staff members must be sensitive that perfectly proper political activity by their spouses, family or companions may nevertheless create conflicts of interest or the appearance of conflict. When such a possibility arises, the staff member should advise his or her department head and the standards editor or the deputy editorial page editor. Depending on circumstances, the staff member may have to recuse himself or herself from certain coverage or even move to a job unrelated to the activities in question. - NY Times ethics handbook, https://www.nytimes.com/editorial-standards/ethical-journalism.html https://www.nytimes.com/editorial-standards/ethical-journali... Search for 'appearance', and you will find many other examples where journalists have to avoid not only conflicts of interest and bias, but even the appearance of them. Because an outside observer cannot distinguish between the two. Is there really no-one as qualified (or more) they could have chosen, that does not have such a blatant appearance of bias, if they really wanted unbiased journalism?