Journalist integrity

I recently read a chapter about individuals in mass media and what type of ethical decisions they make. There was a question within that chapter that discusses whether or not it is ethical for a journalist to ever deceive a source about identity or intentions. I found an article that discusses how a journalist deceived several sources. The first problem was with a certain reporter who was given the right to watch over Richard Nixon's presidency but didnt reveal that he intended to use it for TV (new york times). The second time that this journalist caused deception was when he was involved in a defense on a murder trial, professed to be an ally and friend to the defendant. After the trial he published a book about how he always knew that the defendant was guilty (New York Times). There are several central question that can help analyze this problem. The first one is, what constitutes an ethical problem or dilemma and from whose point of view. Obviously what causes an ethical problem is that this journalist is either lying to sources about his intentions, or he is leaving out facts. It is obviously going to seem unethical to the person that is decieved, and to the general public if it is brought up. Personally I think that whenever a reporter intentionally deceives someone to get a story it is not good, because depending on the type it could cause unnecessary damage to the person deceived. I believe it goes back to the idea that the action must justify the means. I also feel like it causes a lot of distrust in the media when those kind of things happen. Even if it something that the public needs to know, I feel like deception is never required to get a news story and shoudl be attained through alternate means.

here is the link http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9c0ce2d71439f931a15751c0a966958260