ABSTRACT
Throughout the history of American journalism, the focus of ethics talk has usually been closely linked to the economic interests of the press. During the era of the partisan press, there were debates over impartiality that foreshadowed more recent debates over objectivity. One way of understanding the emergence of the concepts of objectivity and professionalism is as the translation of property rights into social power. By the 1840s, with the emergence of the penny press, partisanism had become one of the main targets of ethics talk in journalism. The dominant theme of ethical discourse about journalism in the years after the Civil War was sensationalism and immorality. Institutional politics clearly played an important part in giving the Janet Cooke case the notoriety it achieved. The focus of public attention was the fact that Cooke had lied and thereby betrayed the public trust.
