My daughter Maria just sent me a book she thought I would enjoy - "The Most of Nora Ephron."

Well, the late, great writer captured me with the first chapter, titled "Journalism: A Love Story."I can relate to that.Journalism was my first love. While I was still a sophomore in high school, journalism ignited a passion in me that flamed to the exclusion of all else.I can remember going on a date with a classmate named Joe, along with a copy of the thick Associated Press Stylebook. The so-called "date" consisted of having Joe ask me questions from the book.That was because the editor of our local newspaper told me I should come to him for a job when I had memorized the entire AP Stylebook. It was just his way of putting me off when I went to him wanting to write a teen page because "there's nothing in the paper to interest teens."Two weeks later I went back to his office with the assurance only a naive 16-year-old could muster."Well, now I know everything," I told the esteemed editor.After I answered every question he threw at me from the book, he offered to hire me on a trial basis for $2 a week. (He also warned me one never gets rich in journalism.)I was so excited I ran home, yelling like I had just won the lottery. That "trial basis" turned into a two-year-job that was the start of my journalism career.After graduation, in an era when women were only hired for the "society section," I became the first female reporter in our part of the state.I was so crazy about newspaper journalism that the sound of the press running never failed to thrill me, and I told everyone my favorite perfume was the smell of printer's ink.Instead of fading with the years, my love for my profession grew stronger every year.At every journalism conference we learned to avoid conflicts of interest and to uphold high ethics. We learned to verify what every source tells us.Some of you might be surprised when I talk about journalism ethics and avoiding conflicts of interest.If you are, it's probably because you are confusing print journalism with broadcast journalism. In my opinion, they are about as related as a pig and a kitten. Both are animals, but the similarity ends there.I have always cringed when people told me they hate the way "journalists" shove a microphone in someone's face after a tragedy and ask, "How do you feel?"No print journalist would do that, but it's the stock in trade for broadcast journalists. A mother watches her child get killed and the broadcast journalist on the scene will ask how she feels about what happened.Print journalists, if they want to last in the profession, develop a keen sensitivity for what people are going through. That's especially true for small-town journalists.Over the years I have refused to write about politics, and I won't do it now. But I will say this. How the election is being covered is making people on both sides of the fence say "the media" can't be trusted to tell the truth because "the media" is biased.It breaks my heart to hear this. I respond by saying there's a big difference in the trustworthiness of print journalist and TV and Internet journalists.But after what has emerged this week about some print journalists purposely slanting coverage to aid the candidate of their choice, I'm disheartened.What ever happened to unbiased?I can remember journalism sessions where we were warned to avoid "the appearance of a conflict of interest."That was true to such a degree that journalists were warned they shouldn't write about organizations to which they belonged because it would be a conflict of interest.Years after my husband resigned as school superintendent, I offered to cover that school district when we were in between reporters. No way, I was told. Because of my prior inside knowledge, it would be a conflict of interest.That's the kind of honor I have always cherished in newspaper journalism. It's the kind of honor that still exists today in many small papers that place a high premium on ethics.Nora Ephron writes about the fact checking that went on when she worked at various publications. Everything had to be verified for accuracy before it was printed.Is there anyone out there who will insist that is still the case in "the media?"When opinion pieces are passed off as "news," truth is tarnished. I will caution you not to believe every so-called "story" you read on the Internet.Hopefully, you already knew that, but many people don't stop to think about it. If it's on the Internet, they think it's true.As everyone already knows, Nora Ephron was once married to Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame.I heard him speak last year and once again I was filled with pride for my chosen profession.I know there are still bastions where truth matters and ethics cannot be compromised.I hang on to that thought just as I hang on to my love of small-town journalism.I hang on to that belief because truth and ethnics are now needed more than ever.Contact Pattie Mihalik at

newsgirl@comcast.net.