Henry Hackett is the metro editor of the tabloid newspaper
The New York Sun who loves his job, but has grown weary of the long hours and low pay. He also worries that he could become like his editor-in-chief, Bernie White, who put his work first at the expense of his family. Bernie reveals to Henry that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, and tries to track down his estranged daughter in an attempt to reconcile before his time is up. Facing dire financial straits, the paper's owner has Henry's nemesis, managing editor Alicia Clark, impose unpopular cutbacks. He is also clashing with his pregnant wife Martha, a fellow
Sun journalist (currently on leave), over her fears that he won't be around to help raise their child. She urges him to become an editor at the prestigious
New York Sentinel, which would mean more money, respect and fewer hours. That morning, a hot story develops involving the murder of two white businessmen in
Williamsburg, Brooklyn. A pair of African-American teenagers are arrested for the crime, but Henry and columnist Michael McDougal become skeptical after hearing cops criticizing the arrest on the newsroom
police scanner. Henry becomes obsessed with the case, pushing his staff to dig into the story. It leads him to blow his chances at the
Sentinel when he cannot resist stealing information about the case while in the
Sentinel newsroom interviewing for the job. Meanwhile, a source tells Martha that the businessmen were bankers who stole money from a reputed New York mobster, further convincing Henry that the Brooklyn youths were wrongly arrested. Henry pushes to extend the deadline to get more time to nail the story, but Alicia refuses, citing the cost of overtime pay for the press workers and delivery truck drivers. With time running out, Henry and McDougal get a police detective to confirm that the suspects are innocent, and just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Returning to the
Sun, Henry confronts Alicia, who refuses to let him stop the presses and run the right story. They have an awkward fistfight before Alicia prevails, then fires Henry. After having a drink with McDougal at a journalist watering hole, Alicia has a change of heart after McDougal tells her this would be the first time the paper knowingly ran a false story. But before she can reach the press room on a pay phone, she is hit in the leg by a stray bullet fired by a drunk city official who had gone to the bar to confront McDougal over columns attacking him. Meanwhile, Henry arrives home just as Martha is being rushed to the hospital for an emergency
cesarean section. As doctors prep Martha for surgery, in another part of the hospital, Alicia insists on calling the
Sun to change the front page before allowing doctors to treat her. The next morning, Alicia lies in her hospital bed reading a copy of the
Sun with the headline "They Didn't Do It!" Henry stops by the nursery to see his newborn son, then goes to Martha's room. As he lies down with her, a news anchor on the bedside radio reports that the youths have been released thanks to the
Suns exclusive scoop. ==Cast==