The Last Reporter Read Online Free PDF Page A

dollars . . .”
    “We get it,” said Phoebe. “Duh. We’re not some kind of idiots, you know. They could sell one ad for nine hundred and ninety-nine dollars and ninety-nine cents and one for one cent.”
    “They could?” said Shadow. “Can you sell one ad for one cent? Or are you some kind of idiot?”
    “Enough,” said Jennifer. “Stop. You two have to learn to get along. Being on our own is not going to be easy. We need everyone pulling together if we’re going to keep the
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alive.”
    “The Ameche brothers will figure it out; that’s their job,” said Jennifer. “And Adam and I will be working with them. Now I’ve done a little research. I Googled
journalism ethics
and got 59.2 million hits. There’s a lot to it. We have to be careful. There has to be a wall between the news side and our business side. It’s not your job to raise money. It’s your job to get the news, and we can’t mix up the two. You guys can’t be asking people you’re interviewing to give us money for ads. Like that story Adam and I did last month, on Reverend Shorty and the people in the Willows being forced to move away. We can’t be going to Reverend Shorty and asking his church to give money for an ad in the
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That would be like he was paying to get his story in. That would be like we only tell the stories of people who pay us. No one would trust us if they felt they could buy a story in the
Slash.
If anyone talks to you about wanting to buy an ad, you get in touch with me or Adam and we’ll hook them up with the Ameche brothers. OK?”
    “Even parents?” asked a boy.
    “Even parents,” said Adam. “Like Jennifer’s mom is great, but she’s this big PTA honcho. We’ve got to be careful that she doesn’t start asking us to do nice stories about the PTA just because we ask the PTA for money.”
    “My mom wouldn’t do that,” said Jennifer.
    “It was just an example,” said Adam. “I was just trying to make the point —”
    “It wasn’t a very good example,” said Jennifer.
    “Anyway,” said Adam, “you get the idea. Like Jennifer said — and Jennifer is the one who’s done all the research on this — I mean, 59.2 million hits. We’ve got to keep a wall between the news side and the business side. Jennifer showed me. All the ethics websites say it.”
    “We’re going to build a wall?” said Shadow. “Bricks make really good walls. Very strong. You can huff and puff, but you can’t blow them down. Is the acting principal going to let us build a brick wall in 306?”
    “You
are
some kind of idiot,” said Phoebe. “It’s a symbolic wall. It’s not made out of bricks. It’s made out of ideas, symbolically speaking.”
    “A wall is not made of ideas,” said Shadow. “Stories are made of ideas. Call 911, Jennifer.”
    “Stop,” said Jennifer. “You two — I feel like your mom. Please. You have no idea how hard this will be doing this on our own.”
    “Let’s please stay calm,” said Adam. “The Ameche brothers won’t be working out of 306, anyway. Their headquarters is in the West End. That should help us keep things nice and separate.”
    “Ameche brothers . . .” said Phoebe. “Ameche brothers . . . That name is familiar. Any relation to the
Ameche Brothers’ Talk Till You Drop All-Live Except the Recorded Parts
webcast?”
    Adam nodded.
    “That’s a great show,” said Phoebe.
    They needed story ideas. Jennifer told them she really hoped they’d have an issue ready to go to press by the end of school. “That’s only seven weeks,” she said. “And of course, it will depend on how the Ameche brothers do, if they can raise the money. But we want to show these people who shut us down. The Bolands. Dr. Bleepin. All the assistants and associates and deputy superintendents who wouldn’t stand up for us. The school board. We are still here. We will not go away. We will print the truth!”
    The coeditors had been so focused on figuring out how to pay for the
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they