DW1: Based on the article, it's my understanding that Cole was a freelancer at the Star. If so, was he really an employee who could be held subject to the company's ethics guidelines? Further, it's my observation the Star and other mainstream publications often publish articles written by advocates and even politicians, who in the latter case can hardly be considered objective by any journalistic standard. Readers understand that the work of freelancers isn't necessarily tied to a given news organization's editorial stance. It seems to me that diversity of both experience and opinion are important to good news coverage. I liked reading Cole's articles in the Star and I'm about as mainstream a reader as one might imagine.