One of the fundamental themes across Twenty Years Later is the conflict between personal ambition, the pursuit of truth, and the search for justice. Each goal has a different path, and these paths rarely intersect. Maggie Greenwald, for example, sacrifices truth and justice to pursue reputation, obscuring evidence to falsely convict innocent people and advance herself as a prosecutor. For Avery, truth is a means to establish her professional reputation, though she makes it clear that only some kinds of truth will serve her purpose, noting how the Victoria Ford special will bring in a large audience. Even Victoria’s crime could be seen as a way for her to restore justice, as she gets revenge after being scorned by her lover, Cameron Young.

Early in the novel, Emma Kind characterizes the media as “rabid animals,” and Avery hardly falls short of that characterization. She frequently notes how “her viewing audience would salivate over every detail” of her special on Victoria Ford (247), and it’s evident that she views the pursuit of truth as a means to an end. The novel frames journalism as a balance between truth and personal ambition, as journalists’ objective is ultimately to engage the audience.