[1] Mark Chapman (Broderick Crawford), editor of the New York Express, has made the newspaper a success by pursuing sensationalism and yellow journalism.

His protégé is ace reporter Steve McCleary (John Derek), while successful feature writer Julie Allison (Donna Reed) is frustrated by the paper's drift towards raking the muck.

One night, during a lonely hearts dance organized by the Express, Chapman's estranged wife (Rosemary De Camp) confronts him and demands he visit her hotel room.

Charlie Barnes (Henry O'Neill), an alcoholic former star reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner, stumbles upon the dead woman's suitcase, in which he finds wedding photographs showing Chapman (then Grant) and his wife.

New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther was lukewarm about the film, writing, "The ruthlessness of tabloid journalism, as seen through the coolly searching eyes of Hollywood scriptwriters (who naturally shudder with shock at such a thing), is given another demonstration in Columbia's Scandal Sheet, a run-of-the-press melodrama which came to the Paramount yesterday.

But apart from a bit of tough discussion of the public's avid taste for thrills and chills and a few dubious hints at tabloid techniques, there is nothing very shocking in this film ...

He wrote, "Burnett Guffey's splashy black-and-white photography is filled with New York City atmosphere and the whirlwind energy buzzing around a press room.