Thinking Clearly

Book excerpt: Written by leading professional journalists and classroom-tested at schools of journalism, Thinking Clearly is designed to provoke conversation about the issues that shape the production and presentation of the news in the twenty-first century. These case studies depict real-life moments when people working in the news had to make critical decisions. Bearing on questions of craft, ethics, competition, and commerce, they cover a range of topics—the commercial imperatives of newsroom culture, standards of verification, the competition of public and private interests, including the question of privacy—in a variety of key episodes: Watergate, the Richard Jewell case, John McCain's 2000 presidential campaign, and the Columbine shooting, among others.