When word came to the Seattle Times newsroom, during a meeting, that Karl Rove was resigning as President Bush's advisor, a few staffers cheered. The executive editor, Dave Boardman, reacted quickly.

In a note, he branded that behavior "simply not appropriate for a newsroom," and advised: "As we head into a major political year, now's a good time to remember: Please keep your personal politics to yourself."

The incident was reverberating among media commentators today. Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post, speaking on a radio program, said of the display of disdain for Rove: "That's exactly the kind of thing that leads to people complaining about the liberal mainstream media....It made me cringe." Same here.

Then came word of another incident. It was recounted by Joe Scarborough, an MSNBC talk show host and former Republican congressman. He said on the air that during the State of the Union address in 2003 he was "shocked" to see and hear "people in the newsroom that were booing the president actually from beginning to end." (He added that he had observed no subsequent such episodes at MSNBC.)

I have not worked in any newsroom, including this one, where there was not an occasional display of partisanship. When it happened, yes, it was more likely to have come from the left, though not always. (Indeed, there may be newsrooms for conservative organizations where the reactions have been anti-liberal.) Most of the time, the displays I saw were misfired attempts at humor.

But it ain't funny, especially in times of political heat -- or war. Newspeople have the right to vote for whomever they wish, but the recently recounted events had better be exceptions and not the norm, or the media is in trouble.