Everyday Ethics

Journalistic ethical standards that form the profession’s foundation.

Received Hacked Info? Now What? Five Takeaways About How to Ethically Navigate Reporting of Hacked Materials

In the summer of 2024, reporters from several publications received emails offering access to internal Trump presidential campaign documents, including a dossier that was prepared to identify potential vulnerabilities of J.D. Vance before he was selected as Trump’s running mate. What’s a journalist to do? Under what circumstances, if any, is it ethical for journalists to publish information from hacked files, especially during an election race, and to what extent are the hackers’ motivations relevant to the question?

Moderator Stephen Adler with three panelists onstage.

Confronting Falsehoods Carries Risks for the Press. So Does Ignoring Them.

Donald Trump's and J.D. Vance's recent comments about Haitian immigrants present a familiar challenge to journalists: how to report on misinformation without amplifying it.

Image of a dog between two floating slices of bread.

Guest Column: Is An On-The-Record Interview a Sign of Journalistic Virtue? I’m Not So Sure.

When I started in journalism in the mid-1980s I was given a diktat. Never share a quote in advance with an interview subject. I never did.

On Hacked Documents, Journalism and the Motives of Sources

Highlighting a weakness in much of day-to-day coverage.

DC Says Gun Violence is a Public Health Crisis. Will newsrooms cover it like one? Ask Dr. Jon LaPook.

While this health-centric framing may have been new for Washington, it’s an approach some medical journalists like CBS News’s Chief Medical Correspondent Jon LaPook have embraced for years.

Dr. Jon LaPook on CBS 60 Minutes

Fall Event Lineup to Feature Sessions on Elections, Medical Ethics, Immigration

Guests to include CBS News medical correspondent Jon LaPook and Documented co-founder Mazin Sidahmed.

Letter from the Director, Stephen J. Adler

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 out, to become […]

Guest Column: Being Transparent With Sources Is Key to Building Trust

Guest columnist Dan Levine, a Reuters investigative reporter, explains the importance of sharing with sources how the editorial process works to earn their trust, minimize their exposure and protect their safety.

The Markup’s Syed Leads Workshop About BI Coverage and Ackman

Nabiha Syed, chief executive of The Markup and a media lawyer, led an Ethics & Journalism workshop for students in February through a case study focused on privacy, news judgment, and the role of corporate ownership in overseeing editorial decisions.

Ben Smith: Parachuting Reporters Into Hot Spots, Relying on Amateur Newsgathering Is Fraught

In a recent Semafor column, Ben Smith, editor-in-chief of the site and former media columnist at the New York Times, lays out the potential shortfalls of the historic practice in American journalism of parachuting in senior reporters to hot spots around the globe who then rely on fixers, stringers, assistants, contractors and local journalists for […]