The Newspaper Guild local that represents workers at The New York Times has reversed its opposition to a mandatory ethics quiz for employees, reports Editor & Publisher.

The program consists of a computerized course, followed by a 20-question multiple-choice quiz, to ensure that employees have a firm grasp on the Times’ ethics policies (you can read the newspaper’s 54-page ethics manual here). An employee can take it as many times as necessary until he or she passes. The print and online versions of the Times and WQXR employ about 12,300 people who will take the course.

I don’t see why employees of The Gray Lady should be bullied into taking an ethics test. It’s condescending, pure and simple. It’s not as if its employees have been caught making things up, fudging datelines and taking credit for stringers’ work, intentionally altering quotes, altering or selectively quoting economic figures, using the paper’s weight to declare war on an all-male golf club, keeping bloodthirsty Josef Stalin’s biggest fan on its roll of Pulitzer Prize winners, making shady deals with sources for access, flip-flopping editorial positions based on political party, or inserting fantasy quotes into opinion pieces to reflect the editors’ biases.

I mean, if the Times were guilty of such sins, I’d be the first to argue for an ethics exam.