SECOND EDITION THE PROFESSIONAL JOURNALIST: A Guide to the Practices and Principles of the News Media JOHN HOHENBERG Columbia University HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON, INC. • New York • Chicago San Francisco • Atlanta • Dallas • Montreal • Toronto • London • Sydney CONTENTS Preface vii Part 1 BASIC PRACTICE IN JOURNALISM The Journalist 3 The Impact of the Journalist 3; Training for Journalism 7; The Re­ cruiting of Journalists 11; The Media—Old and New 15; The Public Mind 18; Interpretation 20; Why Newspaper Training? 24; The Developing News Media 26 The News Operation 27 The Operators 27; The Organization 28; The News Staff 32; Changing News Patterns 34; Ethics and Business 37 The "Why" of News Style 39 The Editorial Mind 39; Uses of the Style Book 43; Preparation of Copy 45; Identifying a Story 48; Style as a Manner of Writing 52 The Uses of Language 53 A Grammatical Check List 53; Usage 59; Spelling 62; Conciseness 63; Punctuation 64; Capitalization 65 News Writing Is Clear Writing 67 On Understanding News 67; Toward a Better Understanding 70; Problems of Mass Communication 74; Readability 80 Watch These Things! 84 Attitudes 84; Attribution 85; Checking Copy 86; Claiming Credit 87; Timing 88; Datelines 90; Distortion 90; Editorializing 91; Elegant Variation 92; Good Taste 93; Hard Words 94; "Mister" 94; Negative News 95; Omission of Necessary Detail 97; One Idea to a Sentence 97; Paragraphing 98; Past Tense 99; Qualifying A Story 101; Rumors and Reports 103; Specific News Writing 104; Time Element 105; "Write Like You Talk" 106 Part II THE WRITER AS JOURNALIST Basic News Structure 111 The Inverted Pyramid 111; Building Blocks of News 114; A Well- Organized Story 116; Drama in the News 119 Biography for the Millions 121 People in the News 121; Social Items—and News 124; Obits 128; Funerals 132 How News Fits Time and Space 135 The Writer's Problem 135; Shorts 137; Single-Incident Leads 138; Multiple-Incident Leads 141; The Story Assembled 144; The Chrono­ logical Story 146; The Mechanical Side 148 CONTENTS News Nobody Likes 150 Storms 151; General Weather News 154; Earthquakes 158; Fires 10 159; Transportation Accidents 161; Soaring into Space 166 Handling the Story on Rewrite 168 The Fine Art of Rewrite 168; Rewrite Procedures 172; Updating 175; 11 Rewriting Wire Copy 177; A Rewrite Man's Obligation 180 Sharpening the Lead 181 Good Leads—and Bad 182; What A Lead Requires 183; Leads for All 12 Occasions 185; Some Precautions 186; Effective News Leads 187 "Go With What You've Got!" 192 Writing by the Clock 192; Parts of the Story 193; Piecing the Story 13 Together 198; Writing Backward 199 Human Interest in the News 203 A Different Pattern 203; The News Magazines 206; The News Feature 206; Subjects of Human Interest 208; Family Life 210; Assorted 14 Subjects 211 Wholesalers of News 214 The Wire Service Business 214; Specials and Syndicates 221; Wire Services at Work 223; Wire Service Procedure 224; Comparison with 15 Newspapers 233; Some Historic Stories 235 Broadcast Journalism 237 The Radio Wire 238; Radio Wire Operations 240; Radio News Pro­ gramming 243; Mechanics 247; Television 250; Techniques of TV News 251; The Completed Program 253; Writing for Television 254; 16 Criticism of TV News 259; Television's Future 260 Part III PRINCIPLES OF REPORTING The Lives of a Reporter 265 Л Hard Routine 266; How Reporters Work 266; The Reporter and 17 His Office 272; Dead or Alive? 275 Ground Rules for Reporters 277 The Attribution of News 277; News Before It Happens 285; The Embargo 287; Changes in Advances 290; "Sealing Up" a Reporter 18 291 The News Media and Public Relations 293 The Reporter's Problem 293; Principles and Methods 298; Junkets, 19 Gifts, and Parties 300; News from Public Relations Sources 301 Reporting on Public Affairs 305 News Conferences 305; The Interview 310; Veracity 313; Conven­ 20 tions and Crowds 315 CONTENTS The Press and the Law 319 Freedom and Responsibility 320; Libel Defined 320; Defenses Against Libel 324; The New York Times Rule 328; Partial Defenses Against Libel 329; The Right of Privacy 331; Freedom of Information Laws 21 333 Crime Reporting 336 The Journalist's Responsibility 337; Some Legal Trends 338; The Reardon Rules 340; Crime Reporters 342; Sources of Crime News 344; The Crime Story 347; Guide to Crime Reporting 348; Civil 22 Disorder 352; Writing Crime News 354; Sex Cases and Obscenity 357 The News Media and the Courts 359 Free Press and Fair Trial 359; The Judicial Pyramid 362; Terminology 364; How Courts Are Covered 366; Trial Stories 371; Juvenile Z5 Delinquency 376 Part IV INTERPRETIVE JOURNALISM Politics, Government, and the News Media 381 The "New" Journalism 381; The Political Story 383; How to Inter- pret Political News 386; Examples of Interpretation 387; Local and 24 State Governments 389; Covering Budgets and Taxes 392 Public Opinion, Polling, and Elections 394 Measuring Public Opinion 395; Polling Techniques 398; Predictions 401; Covering Elections 402; The Political Routine 405; Handling 25 The Figures 409 The Big Story: Washington, the UN, the World 413 The Correspondents 414; Washington News Centers 415; Hazards in Press Relations 420; Freedom and Security 422; The Presidential News Conference 423; The United Nations Story 428; Foreign Correspond- ence 432; The Flow of Foreign News 434; The Foreign Correspondent's 26 Job 436; Censorship 440 The Specialists 442 Science Writing 443; Economic News 446; Education News 449; News of Religion 451; The Cultural Story 452; Service News 459; 27 Sports Writing 460 Public Service Journalism 467 The Challenge 468; Editorials 472; Columnists and Commentators 475; Investigative Reporting 477; The Crusade 483; Toward the 28 Future 490 Appendixes I. A Glossary for Journalists 493; II. A Model Style Book 506; III. Copy Editing Terms and Symbols 516; IV. Standards for Journalists 518 Index .