Gwen Ifill Should Be Glad She Doesn't Work In Detroit!

Because unlike PBS, being an obvious advocate for a candidate will get you FIRED!

Longtime Metro Detroit radio reporter Karen Dinkins has been fired after wearing a pro-Barack Obama T-shirt while covering a rally for the presidential candidate Sunday at the Detroit Public Library.

Dinkins, who has worked at WWJ (950 AM) for 13 years, acknowledged that the radio station fired her Monday, but she did not elaborate.

"I don't want to comment at this time," she said.

Georgeann Herbert, WWJ's director of programming, said in a statement that Dinkins compromised the station's objectivity by wearing the T-shirt.

"(The station) believes that our credibility with our listeners rests on the independence of our newsroom staff," the statement said. "WWJ does not favor any candidate, party or issue.

"While we encourage employees to exercise their rights as citizens, we expect them to be on guard against any actual or perceived conflict of interest when covering news stories," the statement said.

Good for them! I listen to the top-of-hour CBS news and get my traffic/weather reports "on the 8s" from WWJ and have heard plenty of Dinkins' reports. While it's too bad she didn't have the sense to realize that while the audience can't see your shirt on the radio, the people watching you work can and that's a no-no for news outfits that still care about trying to be objective.