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July 13, 2005

Dual Responsibilities

So much attention has been focused on the roles and responsibilities of reporters (specifically Judith Miller) that not much focus has been on the responsibilities of the leakers and anonymous sources that talk to reporters on a daily basis.

Because of my job, on occasion I have the opportunity to go off the record and/or on background with reporters that cover Georgia politics. They know, as do I, that in such a special circumstance we have essentially entered into a bargain -- I will answer questions truthfully that I might not want to be associated with on the record in exchange for not being identified in print.

If I were to shield my identity to a reporter in order to tell a bunch of lies or break the law, I'd be violating that trust and at the very least I wouldn't expect that reporter to go off the record or on background with me again. If a law has been broken, there certainly exists no reporter/source priviledge similar to an attorney/client or priest/confession -- especially if the law that is broken is the revelation of information during the conversation.

Ultimately, a lot of this comes down to Judy Miller herself. She is the worst kind of journalist -- not only were her articles on Iraq WMD's that helped fuel the start of the war riddled with errors, but she sucked up to sources (such as Challabi) like an unpopular high school student who makes one friend and is desperate to be accepted by the whole school.

In fact, Miller's decision not to testify has less to do with holding up some sort of journalistic standard and more to do with holding up Judith Miller on some sort of pedestal. In the process of saving herself, she could be destroying a key aspect of journalism for reporters everywhere. A generation of Woodward and Bernsteins that got into the business to expose corruption will be told by wary editors that it isn't worth it to print a story based in part on anonymous sources.

Posted by Chris at July 13, 2005 08:12 AM

Comments

There's an important distinction between leaking a story and giving information under condition of anonymity. That aside, in all but one state, there is at least some level of privilege on information told to a member of the press. Think about all those whistle-blowers on 20/20 or 60 Minutes: if they couldn't be protected by the media, they'd never agree to talk.

Otherwise, the real problem with Judy is that she apparently is quite selective with which sources she protects and which she outs.

Finally, why on earth did they decide to put you on that blogger panel? j/k

Posted by: MEM [TypeKey Profile Page] at July 14, 2005 03:38 PM

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