“We are well aware of the tightrope we’re walking,” wrote Brian Howard in an Editor’s Letter for the Philadelphia City Paper.

The “tightrope” he’s talking about is the fine line between reporting on vital information for the public good and violating journalism ethics:

In the name of providing as genuine an analysis as possible, we sent a reporter to each of the campaigns to sign up as an honest-to-god volunteer. We assigned them fake names to ensure the authenticity of the process they were taking part in. We insisted they volunteer as earnestly as possible. Get down in the trenches and get out the vote. See how they react to the process and how Philadelphia reacts to them.

In their accounts, both reporters express their desire to carry out their assignments in an honest way, to dig deeper than snippets and staged events. We are well aware of the tightrope we’re walking: To get an honest account, we had to be somewhat duplicitous ourselves. Fake names or no, we didn’t identify ourselves as reporters.

The results of these undercover operations are “I Was A Clinton Volunteer” by Tom Namako and “I Was An Obama Volunteer” by Mike Newall, as reposted on The Huffington Post.

Both stories are fascinating. Both provide deep insight into Clinton’s and Obama’s Pennsylvania campaign strategies. Both show the inner workings of the campaign machines.

The opening paragraphs of each story are very telling. This is what Newall finds when he enters the Obama campaign office:

The elevator doors slide open into what feels like an adult kindergarten class. Campaign staffers pinball around the room like dizzied Duck Duck Goose contestants, stopping only to answer questions or direct traffic while volunteers leap for ringing phones, pound away at laptops, and huddle around tables covered with mounds of charted maps and voter scrolls. The carpet is a sea of crumpled paper and Dunkin’ Donuts coffee cups, and the walls are plastered with magic marker Obama portraits and finger-painted campaign banners — the artwork of college students who have descended on the office en masse … Plus, everyone’s wearing name tags.

Undercover Clinton volunteer Namako found quite a different scene at her office:

My first task as a Hillary Clinton volunteer was to get past the campaign’s dead-bolted front door. I began with a hearty knock, the kind you hear when a political canvasser is on your stoop. No answer. I dropped to two knees and peered into the space between the door and the thin rug. No lights. I put my ear to the door, and dialed the general number. Ring. Ring. Ring. “Hi, you’ve reached the Philadelphia office of Pennsylvanians for Hillary, our office is located at five two zero, North Delaware Avenue. … “

Are they examples of ethical investigative journalism? Here’s what the editor had to say:

Sometimes, in the interest of serving the public and fulfilling what we feel to be a higher calling, it’s what we have to do. Running the story is not a decision we made lightly. We went to a lot of sources — from newspaper vets to lawyers near and far — and finally to the Society of Professional Journalists code of ethics:

“Avoid undercover or other surreptitious methods of gathering information except when traditional open methods will not yield information vital to the public. Use of such methods should be explained as part of the story.”

Read the stories and decide for yourself. Right now, SeattlePoliticore Senior Editors Liz Burlingame and Laura Mansfield are in Pennsylvania visiting campaign offices and talking to Pennsylvanians across the state. They’ve had some trouble talking to volunteers for both campaigns. Ethical or not, the City Paper found some truth when the campaigns let their guards down.