A local television news anchor crossed an ethical line when he used a newscast to denounce the federal government's proposed Divine Strake test in Nevada, according to a media ethics expert.

But Terry Wood, a lead evening news anchor for KTVX Ch. 4 News, said Friday that he stands by what he said and does not regret voicing his opinion during the newscast.

Wood traveled to Las Vegas on Tuesday to speak to a spokesman of the Department of Energy and deliver petitions opposing the test. The television station, owned by Clear Channel, had taken an editorial stance opposing the test, in which the Defense Threat Reduction Agency would detonate 700 tons of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil at the Nevada Test Site, about 85 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

While in Nevada, Wood delivered several hundred petitions that the station had collected on its Web site. Camera crews filmed the delivery for a segment that appeared later Tuesday on the station's 10 p.m. newscast. During the segment, a Department of Energy spokesman, Darwin Morgan, refused to speak to Wood, calling the television anchorman's actions "advocacy journalism."

Immediately following the segment, Wood added a personal editorial commentary opposing the proposed test. He acknowledged that the energy department spokesman was correct that he and the news program were engaging in "advocacy journalism," although "objectivity is the goal of a good, professional journalist." But he pointed out that he and his children and grandchildren live in Utah, as do those of the news program's other staff members.

"I, too, am willing to put my professional reputation and career of 40 years on the line in taking a stand against Divine Strake," Woods said on-air Tuesday. "It is that important to the health and well-being of our families. I am not willing to obediently accept the Department of Energy's assurance that it will not cause us harm in the years to come. They may be right, but I do not want to take the chance."

"As journalists," Wood said Friday, "we're encouraged to live by our code of ethics, and I checked it, but sometimes there's an issue we have to take a stand on, and this was it," adding that his segment was labeled as a "commentary." The words "commentary" appeared briefly at the beginning of his opinion piece.

However, Allison Barlow Hess, vice president of the Utah chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, said Wood's actions have compromised his credibility as a journalist.

"It probably weakens his journalistic position, and surely he cannot cover this story any more," she said. "It compromises any coverage he could do of the story, and perhaps even that of the station."

Hess, a Weber State University journalism professor who was a reporter for KSL-TV for 12 years, said that editorials have an important place in the news but that they should be kept separate from actual news stories and be delivered by someone other than journalists who provide the daily news.