ABSTRACT
What James Madison was to the authorship of the US Constitution, Hal Bodley was to the first ethical guidelines established by the Associated Press Sports Editors.
Just five years after APSE’s formation, its leaders accepted the arduous and contentious task of formulating a standard for ethical behavior. Ethics in sports journalism were unfamiliar territory in 1979. For decades, teams and athletes presented sports writers and editors with gifts and favors. Writers hitched rides on the team’s chartered plane, and before that, the passenger cars of trains. They fraternized with the players and even received meal money from the team during roadtrips. And that was only the beginning.
