Word: coram
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Acceptable. At the center of the case was Robert B. Coram, 30, an aggressive and productive reporter who was fired last year by the Atlanta Journal for "unethical practice in obtaining news." His offense had been to deceive a state liquor-control officer; to get a story about nightclub raids, Coram told the officer that his superior, Revenue Commissioner Peyton Hawes, wanted him to tell all. The officer believed Coram and, without checking with Hawes, proceeded to talk...
Even though the charge of deceit against him was true, Coram contended, the Journal had no right to fire him. He and other Journal reporters had often used such tactics, and the paper had never complained. N.L.R.B. Trial Examiner James F. Foley disagreed. Although allowing that "certain deception is accepted as a means of getting a story," Foley ruled that "Coram's conduct is not acceptable as permissible conduct," and that he had indeed been guilty of unethical journalistic behavior. His dismissal was upheld...
Second Wallet. It was a debatable judgment. Coram's deception was certainly no more flagrant than that of hundreds of other reporters who misrepresent themselves to get their stories. "Any good police reporter," says a Chicago city editor, "will get a story out of a policeman by posing as one of his ultimate superiors-a guy who is too highly placed for the patrolman to know whether he is talking to the deputy superintendent or not. It is not something the city desk can condone, exactly. But you don't ask how they got the story, either...