The original thesis question

The fundamental question – Is journalism ethical? – has rattled around in my conscience ever since the first summer I thought to call myself a journalist. It's the only thing in my life to keep me up at night and then it comes to me in nightmares, and it's what got me into this thesis in the first place. These are the three pieces I think of most:

"Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible. He is a kind of confidence man, preying on people's vanity, ignorance, or loneliness, gaining their trust and betraying them without remorse."

Janet Malcolm
"The Journalist and the Murderer"

"My only advantage as a reporter is that I am so physically small, so temperamentally unobtrusive and so neurotically inarticulate that people tend to forget that my presence runs counter to their best interests. And it always does. That is one last thing to remember: Writers are always selling somebody out."

Joan Didion
"Slouching Towards Bethlehem"

"An old woman was walking down the road when she saw a gang of thugs beating a poisonous snake. She rescued the snake and carried it back to her home, where she nursed it back to health. They became friends and lived together for many months. One day they were going into town, and the old woman picked him up and the snake bit her. Repeatedly. "O God," she screamed, "I am dying! Why? I was your friend. I saved your life! I trusted you! Why did you bite me?"
The snake looked up at her and said, "Lady, you knew I was a snake when you first picked me up."

Hunter S. Thompson
"Better Than Sex: Confessions of a Political Junkie"