Stephen J. Adler
Director, Ethics and Journalism Initiative
Stephen J. Adler has led national and global newsrooms for more
than two decades, most recently as editor-in-chief of Reuters.
A global advocate for free speech and journalism ethics, Adler is
board chair of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
He also sits on the Ethics Committee of the Society of Professional
Journalists and the advisory board of the Clooney Foundation for
Justice.
Adler started his career as a local-government reporter at the
Tampa Times and the Tallahassee Democrat. Later, he joined The
American Lawyer and, in 1988, The Wall Street Journal. As WSJ
deputy managing editor, he co-taught the ethics course required
of all news employees. In 2005, he became editor-in-chief of
BusinessWeek.
In 2011, Adler was named editor-in-chief of Reuters and, over a
decade, transformed it into a modern newsroom that excelled in
investigative reporting, data journalism and graphics. Under his
leadership, Reuters won eight Pulitzer Prizes. In 2023, Adler won
the Gerald Loeb Lifetime Achievement Award.
Adler is a graduate of Harvard College and the Harvard Law
School. He is the author of The Jury: Trial and Error in the
American Courtroom. Along with his wife, the novelist Lisa
Grunwald, he co-edited three popular historical anthologies:
Letters of the Century, Women’s Letters and The Marriage Book.
He is a frequent speaker at journalism conferences, universities,
and public forums.
Was It Unethical Not to Cover Biden’s Apparent Decline?
Story selection isn’t covered prominently in most newsroom ethics codes, but what we do or don’t choose to publish is a matter of journalistic ethics as much as anything else. With the publication of Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, we are re-posting Director Stephen J. Adler’s 2024 article on the ethical implications of the media’s failure to cover Biden’s decline when it first became apparent. Beyond criticizing the press, Adler provides useful guidelines for journalists going forward.
Letter from the Director, Stephen J. Adler
June 13, 2024 Welcome to ethicsandjournalism.org, the website of NYU’s new Ethics & Journalism Initiative. Here you’ll find newsroom ethics codes, AI guidelines, a compendium of best practices, topical discussions, and the most useful ethics articles and papers that we can produce or collect. The goal is to help journalists, whether experienced or just starting […]