What role does journalism play, and how does it affect the behavior of the various characters?

Iles's Natchez Burning trilogy has been compared to Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, which also features a journalist. What role does journalism play in Greg Iles's work, and how does it affect the behavior of the various characters?

At least in this novel, the journalist is the catalyst for starting to peel the onions of history and bad deeds of the past.

Journalism plays the role of investigating all the different strands of a story and pulling it all together to get a true picture of the whole story. While all the characters are trying to the truth of events, Caitlin wants to get the truth recorded for history and make events known to the public.

Honest, unbiased journalism plays a significant role in educating and enlightening a society. Yellow journalism deflects the truth--an educated, critical thinking society can tell the difference between the two and judge the information accordingly. In this novel as in real life the characters must evaluate the motive(s) and possible biases of the journalist before he or she responds to what has been presented. Facts must be weighed before jumping to conclusions.

Henry Sexton had spent much of his life and career investigating the Double Eagles, the murders he suspected they committed etc and ultimately paid with his life. I don't think most journalists take on quite so much when they investigate a story, but nevertheless journalists play an important role in getting to the bottom of things. I think Henry had a truer motive than Caitlin did; I think she was primarily interested in breaking that huge story and what that would do for her career.

Journalism is at the core of the whole story The exploitation of Henry Sexton's research became the tipping point for Forrest Knox Good factual journalism is often the alarm to the public, as well as authorities, that something needs investigating.

Journalists help to get the background of a story and may also offer different ideas to help a reader think. When this becomes dangerous is when journalists preset a certain idea as the truth without enough to back it up. It will be interesting to find out in book three what the ideas of things like the death of JFK are dealt with.

I agree that Henry has a much more principled view of the role of journalism than does Caitlin. He was on a serious hunt for truth and justice. She was concerned about getting the story and how it would affect here career. His investigation plays a much bigger role in the unraveling of the history. Her actions primarily lead to putting herself and others in danger