His Girl Friday

                In the film His Girl Friday, news reporters test the edge of ethics in (and out of) the newsroom to get the scoop they need for the story.  Hildy Johnson, the ex-wife of the paper’s managing editor of Walter Burns, is often referred to as “the best newspaper man we’ve got” by Walter himself.  After being reeled back into the newspaper business by a series of planned yet unforeseeable events, Hildy determines she really is meant to lead the life of a newspaper woman—essentially finding it is in her blood.  What is interesting, however, is how hectic and news-centered the life of a journalist is, especially during the era of Pulitzer and Hearst.  Ethics are discarded, harm is hardly considered, and the journalists ultimately get what they want – only to turn around and do it all over again. 

                His Girl Friday is an excellent example of ethical violations in the journalism world during the era of Pulitzer and Hearst.  Characters throughout the story try payoffs for stories, bribe the editors and subjects, hand out counterfeit money, and on more than one occasion have run-ins with the police.  The characters frequently face compromising situations solved in ways that result in the most gain for the newspaper.  The journalists rarely show apathy for anybody, even if someone jumps to their death from the newsroom window itself.  They work in a very sensationalist, individualistic world focused on getting the story no matter what—and making it as dramatized and appealing as possible.  And how does any paper succeed in this era of sensationalistic practices?  Find the worst news and print it on the front page, of course.  Especially in the United States, we are more focused on the bad news (while vice versa in other nations, as pointed out in The Elements of Journalism by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosentiel) because it stirs up the adrenaline and concern, resulting in the need to know more about what happened and how we can restore order to the situation.  This mindset is especially prevalent in His Girl Friday with the murder case causing all sorts of havoc and controversy.  “Where is the murderer?  Did he do it?  What is his alibi?  How does the public weigh in?  Oh, the murderer escaped from jail?  And he is in our newsroom?   Perfect!  Never mind he has a gun pointed right at you, Hildy.  Let’s get this story written!”  This seems to be the basic dialogue encompassing the true theme of the story and the era of Yellow journalism: disregard all ethics and safety in the newsroom for the good of the story.

                Journalism in this era was highly exciting as all ethics were thrown out the window and the story came as is went.  However, the excitement was not always a positive thing, although the characters may try to disagree with this.  In order to get the story, they had to overcome any sort of safety precautions (having the murderer himself in the newsroom) and forfeit all ethics (payoffs, bribes, death, counterfeit money) in order to sensationalize the story as much as possible.  The newsroom seemed to be run as a business rather than a public service—at least behind the scenes.  Although their end seemed to be good (acquitting the murderer from his execution because he “didn’t mean to kill the man”), their means and intentions were anything but good.  The way they went about getting the story and then writing it for the public was purely dramatized and for their sales benefit.  This was displayed in the apathy they showed toward anyone and everyone, even their own employees, fiancés (Hildy’s fiancé Bruce) and the ones they supposedly love (Walter towards Hildy).  Overall, His Girl Friday reflects perfectly the ethics – or lack thereof – during the era of Pulitzer and Hearst’s Yellow journalism.