This study examines two psychological variables that could erode journalistic objectivity--the reporter's attitude toward his source and his expectation of future meetings with the source. Seventy student reporters were randomly assigned to conditions by instructions contained on assignment sheets. The hypotheses tested were that a positive relationship exists between a reporter's attitude toward a source and his favorableness in reporting about the source, that reporters with favorable attitudes toward a source perceive a greater number of favorable items of information about the source than those with negative attitudes, and that reporters who expect to meet a source will write stories more favorable toward the source than those who do not expect to meet the source. The study indicated that neither reporters' attitudes nor expectations of future interaction with the source had the predicted effects, that editorials were always less favorable toward the source than news stories, and that analysis of lists of favorable and unfavorable facts about the source produced by the subjects showed no evidence of perceptual screening. (Author/RB)