Ethics

1. I believe Smith had to differentiate between what was legitimate news and what wasn't because the whole story relied on it. If West wasn't molesting children, or at least pursuing them, then there wouldn't be a story. Smith and others at the paper were trying to dig up and in essence bait West into doing something that may have been out of character. If west hadn't taken the bait then it wouldn't have made a good story.

2. Bill Morlin had to use the fake username on gay.com after finding out about the incident from his 20 year old source. He thought it was necessary to dig deeper to uncover West's activities. Morlin couldn't create the fake name on his own, because it would violate the paper's code of ethics.

3. The paper published so many articles because it was such a juicy story, surrounded by controversy. People love reading about controversy. More controversy in a story directly equates to more income for the newspaper.

4. I really don't think anyone directly benefited from the West stories. West lost friends, lost credibility and his position as mayor was recalled, his life was destroyed. The Spokesman-Review looks like they had conducted a witch hunt. while they made alot of money from the stories, I think sources and others involved with the newspaper will be way more cautious about what they say. The only people who will benefit from these stories are past and potential victims of West.

5. The Lynch story seems to stretch the limits of legitimate reporting. The story is based on alot of theories and not much else. So Lynch goes to a park to ride his bike? thats one explanation for why his car was at the park so much. It seems that the paper is trying to make something out of nothing. This type of reporting based on theories and unsubstantiated evidence could really taint the paper's reputation. I would expect the paper to come up with cold hard facts before publishing that story, rather than just throwing out a bunch of events that could possibly be linked. The article read like a reporter's notes, NOT a final story. I don't think this story should have been allowed to run until everything they inferred was proven.