COLUMN: Journalistic truth or literary fiction?

From Andrea Ahles', "Hawaiian Style," Fall '97 From Andrea Ahles', "Hawaiian Style," Fall '97 He was tall, about 50, with darkly handsome, almost sinister features: a neatly trimmed mustache, hair turning silver at the temples, and eyes so black they were like the tinted windows of a sleek limousine -- he could see out but you couldn't see." A reader of the non-fiction book may find it difficult to separate the actual facts from those with Berendt's influence. And the question must be asked: When does journalistic truth become literary fiction? Breaking news, hotly-debated issues and colorful stories intrigue journalists. The rush of finding the facts and writing the article for the next day are part of what keeps journalists in the business. But in the past few years, more journalists have turned to the literary market, writing books about the issues they have covered. This is not necessarily surprising. Journalists make a career out of writing and tend to enjoy it in all its forms. In most instances, the books that have come out of this trend have been informative, well-researched and discuss on-going issues in a particular field. For example, Washington Post columnist Howard Kurtz' Media Circus details the media's treatment of certain events such as President George Bush's affair that came to light during the 1992 election. But reporters who write about stories they've covered in books which verge on the fictional generate a conflict of interest. Journalists shouldn't be writing books when they should be covering the issues at hand. If they want to write a book, they should definitely not report on that same topic. It raises questions of journalistic ethics and makes sources wonder where the information they reveal will be used. If journalists want to write a book specifically referring to an issue they have covered, they should no longer work as a reporter or columnist for their publication. Newsweek political columnist Joe Klein caused a stir when he included intimate details of President Clinton's 1992 campaign in the book Primary Colors, published under the name "Anonymous." Klein accumulated information for the book while covering the campaign, and he was reluctant to reveal his identity because it would compromise his source relationships. "My credibility as a journalist rested very heavily on my ability to keep secrets, on my ability to protect a source, to make a commitment not to be compromised," Klein said when finally acknowledging he was "Anonymous." As a result of the revelation, Klein's career as a journalist was destroyed. His sources could no longer trust him in their off-the-record conversations. They didn't know if he would use information for a book or a news column. This battle of fact or fiction is only one of the many problems journalists face today. They are often accused of being overzealous in chasing after the news, and they are criticized for twisting the truth. In a book like Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, the author at least admits that he alters the facts. He also notes that he wasn't covering the trial for a publication. In general, journalists should not report a story for a newspaper and write a book on the same issue. They should stick to reporting the news and not changing it to make it more readable for the book market. And journalistic truth should never become literary fiction. Because journalists are protected by the First Amendment and have the responsibility of printing "all the news that's fit to print," they should not abuse that power to make an extra buck by writing a book.