Exercise 7.2

A Reporter's Guide to Trouble

Can you match the offense with its antidote?


1				Try to reason with police who want you out of the way. As long as you're in a public space not cordoned off by police, you have a right to be there (but police may detain you anyway).


2				Publishing something you can prove is true is the best way to inoculate yourself against this charge.


3				Keep in mind that to your sources and readers you represent all of journalism. Start manufacturing facts and they'll think poorly of all of us – and that's bad for everyone who depends on the truth.


4				Don't promise anonymity unless you plan to keep your word. Because courts will consider a verbal deal you make with a source as an enforceable promise, you should also define the terms of such deals carefully and clear them with your editors.


5				Invoking a shield law may help you, depending on which state you're in (and assuming you're not in a federal court).


6				Don't accept gifts, become involved with your sources unprofessionally, or expose yourself in other ways to charges that you might have a conflict of interest.


7				Proofread. Proofread. Proofread.


8				You can't be tried for this in the United States.


9				If somebody else said or wrote it, put it in quotes. Period.


10				Avoid dragging ordinary people's personal secrets into the spotlight.


11				Apply the breakfast test: If it's going to make your readers choke on their waffles, you're probably crossing a line.


12				Check your agendas at the newsroom door. Working as a journalist requires telling all sides of a story.

Answer choices for questions 1 through 12