After reading Janet Malcolm’s The Journalist and the Murderer, I have come to question a journalist’s relationship with those they interview. How far should a journalist allow themselves to become involved with someone they ultimately intend to use for a story? In her book, a journalist (McGinniss) finds himself lying to an accused murderer (MacDonald) in order to get more information out of him and deceives him into believing that they are friends.
Unlike McGinniss, I am actually friends with someone I am writing a story about. However, this puts me in an awkward position because I have stumbled upon a few things in my story that make for a funnier story at the expense of my friend. Any words of wisdom?
1 comment:
That is an interesting dilemma. In general, it is probably considered a conflict of interest to write a story about someone you're emotionally involved with for exactly this reason. But since sometimes we find out about stories because our friends tell us about them, this is often inevitable.
I would have to ask, would including these details cause any harm to your friend? Would they embarrass him/her a great deal? Because if so, I would always value a friendship over an article. However, if the details would not really hurt your friend at all, I would include them and hope he/she has a good sense of humor.
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