I remember a long time ago hearing a radio program about ethics in news, a panel run by a few of the more significant reporters in the area. A guy mentioned an example of a woman who wrote a story about some issue about a giraffe at a zoo, then she signed a petition about whatever the issue was, then did another story a few days later. He went on to say that he considered even this to be going too far to ethically continue reporting on the story- that she had become personally involved in the story, and was now too compromised to continue. Just by signing a petition about some incredibly inconsequential puff piece.

I sometimes think back to that. The equivalent here would be if she had sex with the giraffe and had a history of saying the people running the zoo were basically responsible for the downfall of civilization and deserved to be put in a tank with sharks, and everyone acts like that's fine reporting.