THE CODE.(ethics code for 'The New York Times' journalists)

Speaking of the Times, fourteen years ago, when Steven Crist was covering horse racing for the paper, Sports Illustrated ran a photograph of him posing at a wagering window fumbling with a wad of cash. Crist liked to play the horses as well as write about them. In his view, he had nothing to hide: if you weren't betting, you weren't paying attention.

A colleague of Crist's from the business section of the Times saw the Sports Illustrated story and lodged a complaint with his editors. It seemed that Crist might be capitalizing on inside information that had been gathered in the Times' good name. Crist was summoned to the office of Max Frankel, the executive editor, to explain himself. Crist asserted that in horse racing there is no such thing as inside information: what one learns in the stables is available to all. After several weeks, the matter faded away. Frankel remembers that he directed Crist to stop playing the horses, but Crist felt that it was all right to keep betting--and he did, with the understanding that perhaps in the future he might consider exercising better discretion.

Crist's experience came to mind last week when the Times issued a revised code of conduct for its news and editorial departments, a fifty-two-page document portentously titled "Ethical Journalism." Three years in the making, this set of guidelines governing what reporters, columnists, and editors may or may not do, accept, join, advocate, invest in, or appear at is so thorough that even the index, with its six pages of entries such as "code of ethics, purpose of," "news sources, romantic involvement with," "meals, accepting, guidelines for," and "information, false," is enough to make a man consider a career in public relations. The index entry for "gambling" directs you to Article 131, which states, "To avoid an appearance of bias, no member of the sports department may gamble on any sports event, except for the occasional recreational wagering on horse racing (or dog racing or jai alai). This exception does not apply to staff members who cover such racing or regularly edit that coverage."

So there it is, in black and white: what Crist got away with in 1989 wouldn't fly in 2003. The same goes for many other long-standing gray-area scenarios. The new code is stricter and more explicit than its predecessors, addressing, as it must, a changed world of power couples, hot I.P.O.s, and escalating hostilities over accusations of ideological bias.

Here's what you learn in "Ethical Journalism": Staff members may not hold public office or wear campaign buttons or attend political rallies. Members of the culture staff who collect objects of art must annually submit a list of their acquisitions to the associate managing editor for news administration. Reporters and editors can't own individual stocks that might pertain to their beats, and editors who determine the placement and display of business and financial news cannot own individual stocks at all (other than New York ...