Public confidence in the credibility of the news media is at an all-time low. Americans consistently rate the trustworthiness of journalists somewhere between chiropractors, politicians and used car salesmen. Serial fabricators like Stephen Glass and Jayson Blair have seriously eroded public faith in journalists as fact-gatherers and truth-tellers. So, too, has Judith Miller, The New York Times reporter who uncritically reported nonexistent "evidence" of Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction.

At the same time, cable news anchorpundits are blurring the line between fact and opinion. Corporate conglomerates with an eye on the bottom line are downsizing newsrooms, forcing news divisions to do more with less. Print and broadcast media are competing with the blogosphere, which responds to events at lightning speed—sometimes with insightful commentary or rich crowdsourced reporting, to be sure, but at other times with rumor passed off as fact. Taken together, these developments contribute to a news culture more interested in generating buzz and attracting online traffic than exposing governmental corruption, corporate wrongdoing, and other excesses of power.

The NYU Journalism Handbook: Ethics, Law, and Good Practice offers guidance not only on weighty ethical questions and legal queries but on the gray zones reporters regularly encounter in their working lives. It is our hope that it will help raise the level of discourse in this country and encourage ethical, accurate reporting.