You be the Editor

The newspaper gets an anonymous letter alleging a world-famous medical researcher at a local university is guilty of scientific fraud. The anonymous writer indicates copies of the letter have been sent to nine others, including the researcher's department head, the heads of fund-granting institutions which channeled substantial sums of public money into the researcher's projects, and the editor of a professional journal.

Most anonymous letters go into the wastebasket but because this one was literate and typewritten by someone who obviously knew what was going on in the labs, a reporter is assigned to check it out. It is learned the researcher was reprimanded on a purely procedural and technical matter which had nothing to do with the validity of research. Also, the reprimand was being appealed.

Do you:

A.  Publish a story about the reprimand to set the record straight.

B.  Drop the matter as being information not of legitimate public concern.

Related Lesson

You Be the Editor