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To the NYT and WP: It's about the ethics, stupid. Email Print

By xyz
11/19/2005 09:13:40 AM EST

Cross-posted at DailyKos

There's an editorial in today's Washington Post on the brouhaha surrounding Bob Woodward.

And as with the NYT did with Judy Miller, they just don't get it.  

But the principle remains valid: It's not in the public interest for reporters to be forced to reveal their confidential sources in cases such as this. That's why Post reporter Bob Woodward should not be vilified for protecting the identity of his source in this complex affair.

Excuse me, but nobody is vilifying Bob Woodward for protecting the identity of his source.  They are vilifying him for being a part of the story, and using his 'vaulted' experience to undermine the investigation.

More.....

It's difficult to fathom that both the NYT and the WP don't get it.  Both of them defended their 'star' reporters when those reporters have abused their journalist ethics.

In neither case was this a story about protecting sources.  It's about using their journalism to protect and abet a crime.

But over the years innumerable cases of official corruption and malfeasance have come to light thanks to sources being able to count on confidentiality. It's astonishing to see so many people -- especially in the journalism establishment -- forget that now.

Nobody has forgotton that at all.  We expect reporters to do exactly that, use confidentiality of sources to report official corruption and malfeasance.  It is exactly why we applauded your example, the story on the overseas CIA prisons.

But that's not what Judy Miller, and now Bob Woodward, protected.  They used their cover of journalism's confidentiality to protect the official corruption and malfeasance of outting a CIA agent and the intentional sliming of an opponent for political gain.  Can you not see the difference?

Bob Woodward has been vociferous  in lambasting Fitzgerald's investigation.  

He has called Patrick J. Fitzgerald a "junkyard dog prosecutor" and said in interviews this year that the damage done by Plame's name being revealed in the media was "quite minimal." He told NPR this past summer, "When I think all of the facts come out in this case, it's going to be laughable because the consequences are not that great."
 

Yesterday, Post Executive editor Leonard Downie was online for questions about Bob Woodward.  One reader asked him if Woodward should be punished for lying.  Mr Downie's response was that Woodward didn't lie.

Excuse me, Mr Downie, but when a journalist blasts an investigation without telling us he is part of that investigation, it is a serious lie of omission.  

It's about the ethics, stupid.


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To the NYT and WP: It's about the ethics, stupid. | 1 comment (1 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
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that so many Americans get it, and the NYT and WaPo don't?

Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay. That is the only American principle. FDR

by btyarbro on 11/20/2005 12:08:38 PM EST

To the NYT and WP: It's about the ethics, stupid. | 1 comment (1 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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