The role of citizen journalists and the presence of journalists of color on the campaign trail and covering the White House are all common fodder for journalist conventions. The elephant in the room is usually the issue of whether minority journalists are held to a different standard of objectivity than white reporters.

The issue broke open during a panel discussion about campaign coverage at the UNITY convention in Chicago Sunday.

Alicia Shepard, ombudsman for National Public Radio, asked whether journalists should applaud or cheer a candidate’s appearance, an obvious foreshadowing of the appearance of presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama, which followed the panel.

“It’s analyzing as if we’re under a microscope,” responded NABJ founder and former president Les Payne, saying the question suggested to minority journalists, “You cannot do what we do routinely, what we do universally and have been doing for centuries.”

Payne noted that white journalists have relationships with sources and socialize with them, maintaining that even the American Society of Newspaper Editors applauded President Bush both metaphorically and literally.

Through their coverage of the events leading up to the war in Iraq, American editors essentially applauded Bush’s handling of the war. “Just ask Judith Miller,” Payne said, referring to The New York Times reporter whose close ties to White House sources resulted in coverage that some said essentially endorsed the Bush administration.

Payne also noted white editors literally applauded Bush enthusiastically at an organization event. In 2004, the room, made up mostly of white editors and publishers, gave Bush a standing ovation and a toast at the ASNE/Newspaper Association of America conference in Washington, D.C. And the White House Correspondents Association traditionally jokes and performs skits with White House and administration officials at its annual dinner.

Of about 250 members of the association, only 13 members are people of color, panelist and USA Today political editor Catalina Camia noted during the panel.

Yet reporters of color, especially black reporters, Payne told the audience, are questioned about their ability to be fair and objective when covering black candidates and communities.

The question was sparked by debate before Obama’s appearance at UNITY about whether the audience, made up primarily of journalists, would greet the Illinois senator so enthusiastically that they would lose all journalistic detachment and appear to be partisan.

“This is a serious problem,” Payne said of the allegations. “This is a blood libel.”

He recounted an interview at Newsweek magazine years ago in which an editor told him that it did not send black reporters to cover Africa because management questioned their ability to be objective in their coverage. Payne said he asked whether the magazine had any problem sending Jewish reporters to cover Israel or Irish American reporters to cover northern Ireland, which was raging with civil unrest at the time. Each time, he said, the answer was no. That same effect, Payne said, is still at play in many newsrooms today.

In fact, when UNITY President Karen Lincoln Michel addressed the audience before Obama’s appearance, she reminded the journalists that the Obama interview would be live on CNN and that while there were some civilians in the audience, journalists were expected to show “the proper decorum” when Obama took the stage.

Obama received strong applause when he entered the room, and a few whistles and cheers were scattered about the room. During a commercial break, a number of people moved up closer to take photos of the senator -- including some journalists who were covering the speech for their news organizations. Afterwards, many in the audience surged forward to shake his hand and take more photos.

Within an hour after the close of Obama’s speech, the National Association of Black Journalists’ listserv was lit up with a debate about whether the admonitions indeed reflected a double standard and whether it applied across the board to sports and entertainment writers, as well as political reporters.

“The standard of applauding politely and giving standing ovations to all (whether we agree with them or not) has served us well all these years,” wrote Richard Prince, author of the media column Journal-isms. “Hooting and applause at specific points, indicating agreement with the candidate's policies, is unprofessional (except when it pertains to press-specific issues, such as advocating a shield law, expressing solidarity with imprisoned journalists, or supporting the goals of NABJ), is out of bounds. Same goes to any behavior that could be considered groupie-like.”

But Prince noted that a newsmaker’s appearance at a convention of journalists does differ to some degree.

“This is not the same as a presidential press conference. Here, the candidate accepts an invitation to visit us, not the other way around,” Prince continued. “As McCain demonstrated by his absence, the candidates don't have to come see us at all. A standing ovation and applause expresses our thanks that they made time for us. It's a matter of hospitality.”

Eugene Kane, a columnist for the Journal Sentinel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, said he watched the Obama event on television and hoped other viewers kept in mind that everyone in the room during the Illinois senator’s appearance wasn’t a journalist.

“Okay, there was more applause than I would have liked from a journalism group, but I don't think it was over-the-top, particularly when you consider UNITY was attended by students, family members, teachers, independent advocates and lots of folk who don't really fit into the traditional media categories,” Kane wrote. “All things considered, I think the appearance came off well on TV. There's no need for UNITY to feel like they have to apologize or feel defensive about the scattered bouts of applause and laughter during Obama's talk."

“Nobody," wrote Kane, "ever criticizes Washington D.C. journalists -- mostly white -- who mix and mingle good-naturedly with political candidates during the assorted Press Club events every year.”