Truth-finding and ethics in journalism is really interesting.

"The duty of the journalist is to further those ends by seeking truth and providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues. Conscientious journalists from all media and specialties strive to serve the public with thoroughness and honesty." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_of_journalism#Codes_of_p...

But what if "providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues" requires lying/manipulation?

"Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible." Janet Malcolm, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Journalist_and_the_Murderer

I don't see much of a connection. The problem with the Leah outing was that it was based on very weak and apparently distorted evidence. (And how exactly did she 'befriend a recluse'?) No one, least of all the hermit, denies what he did.

In the author's first letter to Christopher Knight, he told him that he was a journalist