Michael Hiltzik makes some really cogent comments as he guest blogs over at Kevin Drum’s Poolitical Animal.
Many in the press are talking as though the Cooper-Miller mess destroys their ability to recruit and exploit confidential sources, but plainly they’re not talking about confidential sources the way we think about them in the investigative journalism biz. Investigative reporters strive never to hang a story directly on quotes or commentary from confidential sources; they use the sources to guide them to privileged material such as documents, in black and white. That protects the story, and in all but the rare case, it protects the source, too.
Really, if you are trying to write honest stories about a subject such as Rove, what does offering him confidentiality do except get him to take your phone call and then lie to you?
Washington reporters seem to me to get ahead by acting as stenographers for powerful people. Once they offer source confidentiality they become “kept people” for the so-called sources. [Judith Miller, anyone?] These are not whistle-blowers they are protecting. These are the peole the real whistl-blowers should be talking about.
The “Society of Professional Journalists” is whining about the need for a federal press shield law, but they are doing nothing to train their members in how to be journalists – probably because most of the publishers would fire any real journalists on their staff.
