The written tone and the spoken tone change and the reporters' disbelief in the veracity of the government spreads to the readers and the viewers.

For decades, the journalistic norm had been that the private lives of public officials remained private unless that life impinged on public performance.

Given what the media have put the country through this past decade, it must come as a surprise to most Americans that the press has a code of ethics.

Journalists, who are skeptical to begin with, simply do not like to be lied to or made fools of.

No matter what name we give it or how we judge it, a candidate's character is central to political reporting because it is central to a citizen's decision in voting.

As electronic journalism came to be evaluated for its cost effectiveness, the network world began breaking up.

But the time has come for journalists to acknowledge that a zone of privacy does exist.