Editing Janet Malcolm (section)

=== ''The Journalist and the Murderer'' ===
{{main|The Journalist and the Murderer}}
{{quote box
| align = right
| width = 33%
| quote = "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."
| author = Janet Malcolm, 1990
}}

Malcolm's 1990 book ''The Journalist and the Murderer'' begins with the thesis: "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."<ref>Malcolm, Janet, ''The Journalist and the Murderer'', New York: Knopf, 1990.</ref>

Her example was the popular nonfiction writer [[Joe McGinniss]]. While researching his [[true crime]] book ''[[Fatal Vision]]'', McGinniss lived with the defense team of doctor [[Jeffrey MacDonald]] while MacDonald was on trial for the murders of his two daughters and pregnant wife. In Malcolm’s reporting, McGinniss quickly arrived at the conclusion that MacDonald was guilty, but feigned belief in his innocence to gain MacDonald’s trust and access to the story—ultimately being sued by MacDonald over the deception.<ref name="NYTimesObit" />

Malcolm's book created a sensation when in March 1989 it appeared in two parts in ''[[The New Yorker]]'' magazine.<ref>Scardino, Albert, ''The New York Times''. "Ethic, Reporters and The New Yorker", March 21. 1989. "Janet Malcolm, a staff writer for ''The New Yorker'', returned her magazine to the center of the long-running debate over ethics in journalism this month ... Her declarations provoked outrage among authors, reporters and editors, who rushed last week to distinguish themselves from the journalists Miss Malcolm was describing."</ref> Roundly criticized upon first publication,<ref>See Friendly, Fred W., ''The New York Times Book Review'', "Was Trust Betrayed?", February 25, 1990, and Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher, ''The New York Times'', "Deception and Journalism: How Far to Go for the Story", February 22, 1990.</ref> the book is still controversial, although it has come to be regarded as a classic, routinely assigned to journalism students.<ref name="cjr/2003/McCollum-Silent">McCollum, Douglas, ''Columbia Journalism Review'', "You Have The Right to Remain Silent", January, February 2003.</ref><ref name="paris-review/interview/6073" /><ref name="NYTimesObit" /> It ranks ninety-seventh in [[The Modern Library]]'s list of the twentieth century's "100 Best Works of Nonfiction".<ref>[https://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-nonfiction/ Modern Library: 100 Best Nonfiction]</ref> Douglas McCollum wrote in the ''[[Columbia Journalism Review]]'', "In the decade after Malcolm's essay appeared, her once controversial theory became received wisdom."<ref name="cjr/2003/McCollum-Silent" />