When a Reporter Becomes Part of the Story

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Claire Hoffman, who covers Hollywood and the adult entertainment industry for the Los Angeles Times, faced an unusual dilemma while working on a profile of "Girls Gone Wild" creator Joe Francis. Hoffman shadowed Francis and his film crew on location at a Chicago nightclub, and by the end of the trip, she didn't know whether to write her story or press charges. Ultimately, she wrote the story as a first-person account for West, the L.A. Times' Sunday magazine. The piece begins in the parking lot when Francis suddenly turns on her: He "has my face pressed against the hood of a car, my arms twisted hard behind my back." The traumatic event ended, she wrote, when she wriggled free and punched Francis in the face. Hoffman talked to AJR's Andrew H. Vanacore about the episode. An edited transcript follows.

How did the idea for a profile of Joe …