Book Review: Law and Ethics for Today’s Journalist: A Concise Guide, by Joe Mathewson Journalism Ethics, Arguments and Cases for the Twenty-First Century, by Roger Patching and Martin Hirst

Abstract

Joe Mathewson and Ethics for Today's Journalist: A Concise Guide. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2014. 222 pp. Roger Patching and Martin Hirst Journalism Ethics, Arguments and Cases for the Twenty-First Century. London, UK: Routledge, 2014. 300 pp.In our digital and social world, legal and ethical issues emerge in an instant, and the author of and Ethics for Today 's Journalist: A Concise Guide finds that training aspiring reporters requires integration. Law and ethics intertwine in journalism; as such, they should be taught and discussed together (p. xi). Mathewson, a former Supreme Court correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, teaches law and ethics at Northwestern University.Mathewson's book includes thirteen chapters on the courts and legal system; ethics, root and branch; prior restraint; libel; invasion of privacy; less common invasion of privacy torts; fair trial versus free press; anonymous sources and the journalist's privi- lege; copyright; access to government documents and meetings; broadcast regulation; Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission; and the ethical journalist.Much of the book's content is appropriate for a traditional communication law course for journalism majors. It begins with a readable introduction on the sources of law and judicial structure. Rather than burying ethics late in the book, chapter 2 opens with the Jayson Blair story. Mathewson offers an important warning: Sadly, in recent years, other fabricators and plagiarists, most of them experienced journalists, have been fired or suspended at other major news organizations (p. 14).The book then offers a step back into classical ethics, such as virtue, love, rights, duty, and utility. While a review of professional conduct codes also is useful, a strength of this chapter is its focus on two key concerns:* Concealment and Confidentiality (p. 22)* Conflict of Interest (p. 23)Each chapter concludes with a thoughtful set of discussion questions and references for additional reading.As the book shifts back into law, however, there is not enough integration of ethics concepts. the prior restraint chapter, for example, the reader gets only a short con- clusion: In sum, you may publish, but publish responsibly, or else it may be subject to serious penalties, as we shall see in the chapters to come (p. 37).The libel chapter, however, successfully integrates law and ethics under a subhead- ing Wall Street Journal in Error (p. 48). Mathewson lists six critical mistakes (pp. 49-50). And the Libel section offers important advice:At the very least, operators of blogs and websites must be aware that publishing defamatory remarks or photos submitted by anonymous users could give rise to this sort of discovery demand and perhaps even to personal liability as a publisher. The same caution applies to Internet violations of personal privacy; of an accused person's right to a fair trial; of copyright protection or articles, photos or other created works, and to everything else that your or others may post on your own or someone else's site. …