Ask the Ethicist

Q. I'm doing a feature on a brutal murder, and in order to get the whole story from one of the killers, I told him I'd get him a good lawyer. Now I don't feel I can finish my story -- well, it turned into a book -- until the brute is executed. Should I fire the lawyer to speed the execution?
A. You have just summarized the main conflict of the film Capote, which follows author Truman C. and his pal, fellow novelist Harper Lee, as they investigate a mass killing at a farmhouse. I saw it with Christine in Palm Springs this weekend (and you thought we were just hiking in the desert or something).

In the Chicago Tribune today, Julia Keller discusses Capote's ethical conflict and draws attention to the fact that another big film set in mid-century, Good Night, and Good Luck, is also concerned with the ethics of journalism.