Professional ethics when reporting on sensational stories
As the editor of the University of North Carolina <cite>Daily Tar Heel</cite>, Daniels had to establish his professional ethics as a newspaper reporter. He describes a conflict between his allegiance to his college and his dedication to truthful reporting.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Jonathan Worth Daniels, March 9-11, 1977. Interview A-0313. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- CHARLES EAGLES:
-
What were the burning issues on campus then?
- JONATHAN WORTH DANIELS:
-
I remember we had one real terrible thing, really. The police arrested a
group of whores in the ATO house. It came up into court, and The
Tar Heel and got a story about it. And what was his
name, Ervin, he's a brother of Senator Sam Ervin, was the biggest
politician on campus at that time, and he was in
ATO. And he came to me and said, "Now you can't print that in
the Tar Heel. That will do great injury to the
University, which is at this moment trying to get appropriation for more
money and so forth, and it would be a great injury to the University if
you printed it." Of course, he was interested because he was in
ATO. "Well," I said, "I think we've got to
print it." We finally agreed to go to see President Chase about
it. We went to see Chase, and Ervin stated his case and I stated mine.
And Chase said, "It happened, didn't it?" And Ervin
said, "Yes." And he said, "Well, I think
Jonathan should print it." I always had great affection for
Chase after that. And so we printed it. Oh, lots of issues, but I don't
remember any of them particularly. We had a good time.
