Do Journalists Traffic in Duplicity?

Do Journalists Traffic in Duplicity?

JANET MALCOLM’S most famous book is The Journalist and the Murderer. Much of its notoriety stems from its searing opening line: “Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible.” Why morally indefensible? Because of journalism’s inherent duplicity. For Malcolm, a writer for The New Yorker from 1963 until her death in 2021, the reporter wins over her sources—…