The Paper

Carrie Scherach

The 1994 movie, The Paper provided a glance into typical conflicts in the newsroom. The New York Sun fell in a tough spot between running a story on a murder based on easily obtained information or following a hunch and diving deep into the hard to report truth. The easy route was running a story pinning a murder on two young innocent boys.

The conflict between city editor Henry Hackett and managing editor Alicia Clark is a warranted one, determining whether the two boys names will be slain in the media or their innocence will be heard. It's sad to think that this is a quite likely a real life situation, and some reporters and editors find decide to take the easy route and meet a deadline instead of doing the extra footwork for the truth.

Another issue in the dealing with the matter was an issue of sources. Protection of sources is an important issue to keeping the truth in journalism and informing the public. Many knew the boys in the movie were innocent and that there were mob connections in the murder case, but no one wanted to go on the record with the information.

These situations leave the journalism field in a Catch 22. People must continue to question the media fed to them because of those that have been dishonest, but journalists must stay loyal to the confidentiality of their sources to continue receiving information when there are corruptions within businesses, government, and organizations.

This one situation addressed multiple questions that provide a realistic look at issues that the media confronts daily. It is imperative that journalists continue to go the extra mile to conquer these conflicts in seeking the truth and reporting it, as well as addressing issues about sources.