Today's New York Times has an interesting op-ed by "Public Editor" Clark Hoyt about reporters who also write columns, that is, opinion pieces, on the same subjects they cover.  His question: Is that appropriate?

The question is interesting but largely passe to the point of almost being quaint. Print reporters routinely get interviewed on television and radio about the stories they cover and are often treated as experts in their field.  Many print and on air journalists these days also have blogs in which they provide their opinions on many of the same subjects they write about as reporters.

It's not surprising, therefore, that the publications for which these journalists report also want them to provide the opinion-oriented content instead of allowing them to provide it elsewhere.

There's also a bottom line consideration that Hoyt doesn't mention: Having one of your reporters write a column in most cases means that you don't have to pay someone to provide that additional content.

And none of this is really new.  About a decade ago Washington Post senior political reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner David Broder graciously accepted my invitation to speak to the staff in my office.  During the Q&A I asked if he thought it was a conflict to report and write a column on politics.  He had been doing both of those for quite some time and said that he never found it to be a problem.

Hoyt's op-ed also seems a bit quaint because we're living in an era when someone can be a presidential candidate, member of Congress, Army general, or White House staffer one day and a supposedly objective reporter, interviewer, analyst, talk show host, or commentator the next.  Reporting and writing a column on the same subject seems downright tame by comparison.