Grimm, Oppenheimer, Marquez, Reinhard -- these are The Miami Herald's famous ''news columnists.'' They write their opinions in such a distinctive voice that we know them like neighbors. But that's the problem, too. What are they doing in the news pages, many readers ask? Why are they also reporting? And why doesn't The Herald just fess up and admit that it mixes news and opinion?

''I wonder almost daily why they aren't on the editorial pages,'' wrote Martin Petersen of Hollywood.

''The placement of these columnists implies their views are objective reporting, when they are anything but,'' said Heather Splan.

I share many of the misgivings, but it doesn't make much difference. The columns aren't going to be moved. Beginning in the 1980s, newspapers across the country let news columns drift from emotive features by a personality journalist to the opinions of those personalities on policy and politics. The columns are now such institutions among large groups of readers that publishers are loath to move them, and the columnists themselves would go kicking and screaming.

Indeed, they are only going to spread, as the country moves to more opinionated media in general. Look at cable news, radio, news magazines and blogs. For both readers and the writers, that makes the following question even more urgent: What are the rules for a column that has feet in both news and opinion? The answer: not many.

The general consensus is that news columns are supposed to have original reporting in them, with limited opinion restricted to the defined expertise of the columnist. That is almost like saying the columnists are supposed to be just a little bit pregnant. Anyway, many of the best columnists in the editorial pages do reporting, too.

Some 15 years ago, Leonard Downie, editor of The Washington Post, threw most of the columns out because he was said to be be so frustrated with the confusion he felt the columnists created for readers and the resulting damage that confusion did to trust in the real news stories. But the news columnists are back at The Post, and elsewhere. That is because as the straight news itself has become ubiquitous from so many sources, readers rightfully have been demanding more analysis and opinion to make sense of it. They also demand more ''attitude'' by writers to make it fun. Be honest: You may be one of those readers.

I am. I tremendously enjoy reading The Herald's big four news columnists, as well as its sports, lifestyle and other columnists, including the feature news columnist Daniel Shoer Roth. But I still worry about the rules and what ''news columns'' on policy and politics do to trust.

INTERTWINED

The news columns are edited by the same editors who edit the regular news stories. In a holdover from the days when the columnists were just pure feature writers, a story being covered by a columnist is often considered by Miami Herald editors to be sufficient coverage of that story. That was the case, for example, of the coverage of former Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Rudy Crew in his waning days. Herald editors let Myriam Marquez carry the water on the crucial role of Cuban community leaders and Cuban radio, even though she came at it with open opinion.

I am not saying she was unfair, but when The Herald relies on columnists to report the news, let's be open in saying that, ''Yes, we do mix opinion -- and even bias -- with some of our news coverage, and these are the rules on how we do it.'' As it is, the columns get much less editing than news stories, out of deference to giving columnists their voice.

That leads to exquisite writing by Fred Grimm, for example. ''My metaphors, lately, curl up in doorways like drunken winos,'' he wrote in one recently column. Wow.

But that also leads to occasional glaring and unfair offenses that editors should not be letting pass anywhere on the news pages. In another column, Grimm described the ''hissing fit'' of the Madagascar hissing cockroach as ``sort of like the crowd at a Sarah Palin campaign rally. And almost as creepy.''

Executive Editor Anders Gyllenhaal told me that he thinks readers are sophisticated enough to distinguish between news stories and columns, which are clearly marked as opinion. One doesn't taint the other, he said. Maybe. But no one knows for certain, especially when the range of columnists is limited. As I have written many times before, there is no identifiably conservative Miami Herald columnist in the news and opinion pages on domestic issues, as much as the current ones insist they are nonpartisan.

''When over 60 percent of voters support maintaining marriage as a bond between a man and a woman, how is it that The Herald can't even print one rational analysis of the case for Amendment 2,'' wrote Jerome Hurtak of Miami Shores. There were some minor exceptions, but his general point is valid, as much as I personally agree that gays should have the right to marry.

Gyllenhaal says he is closing in on hiring a conservative columnist.

WHERE WRITERS STAND

So, what do the big four say for themselves? I think that they usually, though not always, achieve -- or at least try to achieve -- what they aim to, but readers can judge:

Marquez began writing editorials and op-ed columns for The Orlando Sentinel 20 years ago. Then several years ago, her editors there asked her to do a metro-page column with the aforementioned ``attitude.''

''I noticed instantly that the readership was broader on metro -- younger, scrappier versus op-ed, which tends to be older, more retirees, and the power structure [elected officials] who weigh in,'' she said.

''I rarely write off the top of my head,'' she added. ''I report my columns, either by interviewing officials and others, or reading authoritative reports, or both. Sometimes I try to be light, offer humor,'' she said. Other times, ``I write with an edge and an attitude, but also with a heart.''

``I'm not one to be pigeon-holed by readers, because I tend to stick up for fairness -- I don't align myself with one political party or another. I praise when I believe they do good, and condemn when I believe they've misbehaved and squandered the public trust. I don't skew way to the left or the right, but that doesn't mean that I deliver namby-pamby columns that don't come down on one side or another, with arguments that are researched.''

Fred Grimm, in his inimical pithy style, wrote me about why he should not be moved to the opinion pages: ``I'd hate the notion of being relegated to wither among you thumb-suckers. Mine is a visceral reaction to the news. I'm a part of the news operation. My best columns are derived from the work of city desk reporters. My job is to illuminate their work. And provide something less from the brain than from the gut.''

As for the critics, he wrote: ``All this discussion about too liberal or too conservative, to me, is so much empty carping coming from folks who spend too much time with AM radio and cable television.''

Beth Reinhard is the least opinionated of the four, which is good because she is the paper's political editor and writes regular political stories. ''I see my column as more news analysis than opinion,'' she wrote. ``I think the column serves readers by offering them an edgier take on the news, with some attitude and humor.''

Andres Oppenheimer, I must tell you, has been a longtime friend of mine. I don't always agree with him, but his body of work on Latin America is one of the best by any analyst ever.

''What we see in our current newspapers is pretty outdated,'' he said, 'because what we see in our front pages today is the news that we have already seen on the Internet or CNN last night. Therefore, the newspapers of the future will have more of what we call `news columns' in today's news pages, and more 'opinion columns' in expanded opinion pages.''

He has settled on a formula of interviewing one or two people in a straightforward news fashion, then ending this signature way:

``My Opinion: The test for whether a column belongs to the news or opinion pages should be whether it contains original reporting, interviews, etc., and whether these are clearly identified as such. If it's just a writer's opinion, it belongs to the opinion pages. Either way, we need more columns, not fewer, to help people make some sense of the proliferation of misinformation that is flooding the Internet.''

And My Opinion? Each one of them is excellent, but the editing needs to be better to prevent transgressions. The editing should insist on reporting and some balance if the column is opining on policy or politics. Bias should be stated up front when relevant. And there should be a much broader range of columns. Otherwise, move them all to the op-ed pages.

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