Randy Cohen writes the weekly column "The Ethicist" for The New York Times Magazine, syndicated by the Universal Press Syndicate as "On Ethics". Diane Sawyer interviewed him on three questions he's frequently asked: Should I tell if I discover that a friend's spouse is having an affair? How honest does my resume have to be? If my umbrella is missing, may I take another one from the pile? Cohen's thoughtful, judicious answers have a way of suddenly turning wry. In fact, he is an Emmy Award-winning comedy writer who has worked with David Letterman (950 programs) and Rosie O'Donnell.

Randy was born in Charleston, South Carolina. He attended graduate school at the California Institute of the Arts as a music major studying composition. He is unable to account for either of these circumstances.

His first professional work was writing humor pieces, essays, and stories for newspapers and magazines (The New Yorker, Harpers, the Atlantic, Young Love Comics). A collection of these pieces, Diary of a Flying Man, was published by Knopf. For several years, he wrote "The News Quiz," a regular column of topical comedy, for Slate, the on-line magazine.

His first television work was writing for "Late Night With David Letterman." for which he won three Emmy awards. His fourth Emmy was for his work on "TV Nation." He received a fifth Emmy as a result of a clerical error, and he kept it. He was the original head writer on the "The Rosie O'Donnell Show" for which he also co-wrote the theme music.

Randy is also the ethics columnist for the Times of London. The Good, the Bad and the Difference, a book based upon the column, was recently published in paperback by Broadway Books. He is a regular contributor to Weekend All Things Considered on National Public Radio.

Dear Sir, Drop Dead

When you write the ethics column for the Times, people are bound to disagree with you. Randy talks about the questions that spark the most controversy.

Buying, Selling and Cheating

Ethical questions in the marketplace, on the job, doing the deal. Is there a morality of money? Is there honest advertising? Is "business ethics" a contradiction?

Mind Your Own Business

When does easy going tolerance become cold-hearted indifference? How do you decide when you're morally obligated to speak up, and when simple good manners demand that you keep silent?

Etiquette / Ethics / Politics

From the small scale interaction of social custom through the vast scale of social policy, an ethical view of politics / a political view of manners.

Do the Republicans Own Virtue?

William Bennett, among others, associates personal morality with right wing politics. But it ain't necessarily so. Is there an ethics of the center?