Scenario 3: Presenting Both Sides
You are a television reporter on assignment for a local station and you are putting together a broadcast to air tonight on the 6 p.m. news about a local physician who is under suspicion for practicing medicine without a license. Your source is a well-placed official in the police department who tipped you off; he said that an investigation had been conducted and that charges were being readied against the physician. Your editor knows you are working on the story and wants it to air tonight. The physician is prominent figure in your town, his children attend the local high school, and his wife is involved in the school board as well as local civic groups. The charges will be serious and the consequences severe. You can't get the physician, or his friends and supporters, to comment on the record or even take your calls. His attorney refuses to return your calls. Your source in the police department won't go on the record, but you've relied on him before, and you trust him. You have no named sources. Your editor wants to know by 4 p.m. if you'll have this report finished for broadcast, and you want to look good.