Lois Lane Friday: Man of Steel's Lois Lane and her Journalistic Integrity

I might have a few issues (okay a lot of issues) with the Man of Steel movie but one thing that I love is Lois Lane killed her story about her mysterious rescuer a.k.a. Clark Kent. I think when she first went to the Daily Planet Editor-in-Chief Perry White with her story following what happened to her in Canada, it read more like science fiction than a news story. So when Perry said he wasn't going to print her story, that felt like a challenge to find out everything she could about her mysterious rescuer.

She followed the clues and found the truth about who and what Clark was but after gathering all the facts along with speaking with Clark, she made the decision not to reveal who he was in an article that surely would have won her plenty of accolades. She pretended her story lost traction and she ran out of leads.

There's a reason that Lois Lane is one of the best journalist in the DC Comics Universe and it's not because she's outstanding at her job. It's because she has journalistic integrity. Although, the article about Clark Kent, a heroic man who just happens to be an alien from another planet would make for an interesting story and would have made her beyond famous. She realized that the story would have done more harm than good. While she might have been celebrated in the media, what would have been the outcome for Clark and his mother Martha? Their lives would have immediately turned upside down and Clark would be hounded everywhere he went by the public, the press and the government. This would be everything his extremely paranoid father Jonathan Kent feared would happen.

Lois deciding not to publish her article, speaks volumes to her character and that she understands the importance of being a journalist. Revealing the truth about Clark would not have benefited the public as oppose to writing an article about the hero Superman. As much as I love that Lois killed this story, she did make a terrible decision following Perry refusing to publish her article about the mysterious alien rescuer. She gave her story to a not so reputable online site to "leak" it. I don't know if her ego was bruised or she was simply mad but that was a bad call. However, it shows that people make mistakes (which didn't go unnoticed by Perry, she was suspended for three weeks without pay) but what I like is that she made up for it by not publishing the story that would have truly been detrimental to Clark Kent.

Lois Lane is one of my favorite characters, I like that she's not perfect (no one is) but she's hard working and outstanding at her job. Because of her journalistic integrity, she understands the power of her words and the responsibility that comes with it.