The ethics of newspapers

Peter Green, the New York Times correspondent in Prague, went to St. John's College. Rob Gaudet comments: "St. John's is indeed a wonderful college due to its great books program and discussions. They also have a campus in Santa Fe, New Mexico with the same program. Perhaps Mr. Green can answer the question regarding journalistic ethics. Are they bound to any code? Or is it just a generalized sense to tell the objective truth so long as your editors and/or producers don't mind?." RH: The last proviso is important. During the last years of the Soviet Union a major TV network sent a crew to my house to interview me about world affairs. It took about three hours, at the end of which the boss of the crew said the interview was excellent. It was never shown, to my great annoyance. It transpired that the network was trying to make a deal with Moscow, and feared that my remarks would create problems. In general newspapers are much more honest, but some years ago the Los Angeles Times spoke of breaking down the wall between the news and advertising departments. How stands the wall?

Ronald Hilton - 4/12/03