We should then hold these various choices up against our guiding principles. The decision-maker's goal is to choose an alternative that best honors those guiding principles, recognizing that these principles are sometimes in competition with each other. The Unabomber gave the Times and the Post three months to publish his manifesto. By taking time before they make a final decision the newspapers may open up other possibilities, including the chance that the Unabomber is apprehended. Try to open a conversation with the Unabomber to see if there are other courses of action that might be possible short of giving in to his demands.
Negotiation is often thepathway to resolution.
Take some small steps related to his demands, possibly publishing some excerpts from his manifesto. Such actions may be justifiable journalistically based on the newsworthiness of those excerpts, thereby eliminating some of the negative consequences that come with giving in to terrorist demands. Go ahead and publish the complete manifesto, but in a form other than the daily newspaper. That publishing might be in book form, or on the Internet, or in mass distribution of copies of the manifesto. Go ahead and publish the complete manifesto in the newspaper, but make it very clear to the public that this was an absolutely last choice given the nature of this case and that the decision to publish will carry no weight in terms of precedence.