Coauthoring celebrity books and similar PR work is out of line for journalists, although exceptions may be made for private individuals who are not likely to receive continuing journalistic attention. The issue of position advocacy is more difficult. The key is what happens to the reporter's and news organization's credibility. There's a difference between a reporter-author reaching a conclusion that annoys people and writing a diatribe, said Carolyn Lee, assistant managing editor of The New York Times. If the reporter reported and quoted critical material that leads readers to their own conclusions and the subject of the book said, 'this is unwarranted,' this would not cause us to remove him from the beat.
Life is a lot easier if the news is no longer fresh.
Largely what we were doing was filling in the gaps. Hage said that they were delighted with management's support and Managing Editor Tim McGuire said that management was delighted with their book. This one was very clean in that the strike was over, yet there was still some interest. On-going news is different. It's reasonable to expect news organizations to grant permission for reporter-authors to use material that they developed.