Gannett reviews employee blowback to social media policy memo after Roe overturn

By Sara Guaglione

After receiving criticism for forbidding its journalists from posting their opinions on the Supreme Court striking down Roe v. Wade last week, Gannett is now sorting through the feedback it has received from its employees regarding the news publisher’s social media policy.

Last Friday, Gannett – which owns USA Today and over 250 local dailies in 45 states – was one of many media companies to respond to the SCOTUS ruling by sending a memo to acknowledge the impact to employees’ health benefits – as well as a memo reiterating its social media policy. The latter email barred journalists from taking a public stance on the ruling. It also asked employees to alert their managers if they saw such messages posted by colleagues.

“You cannot use social media to take a political position, criticize or attack a candidate, or express personal feelings about an outcome or ruling. (If you notice a newsroom colleague posting inappropriate comments, immediately alert your supervisor.),” the company stated in the email. The email also told journalists to “refrain” from liking or retweeting posts “that could appear to indicate support for any side or group.”

Gannett’s journalists are guided by the company’s “Principles of Ethical Conduct,” which are “echoed throughout our social media policy,” a Gannett spokesperson said in an email. While some media companies publish their social media policies publicly, Gannett is one of the news organizations that only shares its guidelines internally.

The reaction to the memo was swift. Twitter threads cropped up dedicated to arguing the concept of objectivity. While most major newsrooms have guidelines prohibiting journalists from taking a political stance – due to the idea that perceived bias could damage a news organization’s credibility – the guidelines become murkier when the issue at hand is one of civil and human rights. Similar tensions were brought up when journalists openly supported the Black Lives Matter movement and joined protests against racial injustic in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.

Gannett employees that spoke to Digiday under the condition of anonymity said they felt disappointed by the way the company handled the situation.

“Basic statements like ‘women deserve equal treatment under the law’ is not a political opinion. It’s a basic factual thing,” said one Gannett employee.

The employee wished the company had sent the memo at a different time, such as earlier in the week, rather than when employees were reeling from the news of the SCOTUS ruling. “It just seemed poorly timed, in my opinion,” she said.

“Instead of saying we should keep our personal feelings to ourselves, I feel like since we want to show our diversity and be proud of it we should encourage people to thoughtfully talk about how we’re humans and how that helps with our coverage because of our experiences,” a second Gannett employee said.

“We’re not going to tweet out ‘Fuck SCOTUS’ – it’s more like ‘this happened to me and this is important to me and it’s harmful to my healthcare,’” said …read more

Source:: Digiday