Journalistic Integrity (Tomorrow News Network: A to Z)

Hello, friends!  Welcome to another episode of the A to Z Challenge.  For this year’s challenge, I’m telling you more about the universe of Tomorrow News Network, my upcoming Sci-Fi adventure series.  In today’s post, J is for:

JOURNALISTIC INTEGRITY

Tomorrow News Network has lots of weird aliens, cool planets, and gigantic spaceships.  Also, time travel.  Plenty of time travel.  But in a sense, T.N.N. isn’t really about any of that stuff.  Really, this is a series about journalism.

They say write what you know.  Just about every aspiring author has heard that advise at some point.  Well, I’ve spent over a decade working in the news business.  It’s an exciting and important job.  It can also be a frustrating and depressing line of work, depending on what happens to be in the news today.  The news business is what I know, so that’s what I write about.

Which brings us to the issue of journalistic integrity.  To quote my main character, the time traveling news reporter Talie Tappler:

You have to understand: we at the Tomorrow News Network have a policy.  We report the news.  We do not make the news, or remake the news, or interfere with the news in any way.  […]  It’s a matter of journalistic integrity.

Talie’s sense of journalistic integrity will be a source of conflict in most (if not all) of the Tomorrow News Network adventures.  She is a time traveler.  She knows the future.  When she shows up to cover a newsworthy event, she knows already what’s going to happen.  She knows who will suffer, who will die, and who will stand triumphant in the end.

And Talie will not interfere.  She will not meddle with history.  She will not alter time.  All Talie will do is smile coyly and tell you, “It’s a matter of journalistic integrity.”

Next time on Tomorrow News Network: A to Z, I will very awkwardly try to tell you about Kotta kottomira without revealing what those words mean (because that would be a major, major spoiler).

P.S.: A while back, I wrote a guest post for Fiction Can Be Fun about the real life origins of Tomorrow News Network.  So if you want to know more about how I’ve incorporated my work experience into my Sci-Fi writing, please click here.