Journalism deans in WP: "When in Doubt, Publish"

[Rose Siding]

When in Doubt, Publish

It is the business -- and the responsibility -- of the press to reveal secrets.

...As deans charged with imparting the values of journalism to the next generation of reporters and editors, we favor disclosure when there are not strong reasons against it.
...
We believe that the extraordinary power of the presidency at this moment mandates more scrutiny rather than less. Yet Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales has said he would consider prosecuting journalists for publishing classified information. Such an action would threaten to tilt the balance between disclosure and secrecy in a direction that would weaken watchdog reporting at a time when it is badly needed.

We subscribe to the vision of Carl C. Magee, a crusading journalist whose Albuquerque newspaper infuriated another president in the 1920s with revelations in the Teapot Dome scandal. Forced to close his paper after being driven to bankruptcy, Magee emerged two months later with another newspaper.

Emblazoned on the front page was a new motto, borrowed from Dante: Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way.

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Geoffrey Cowan, dean
Annenberg School for Communication
University of Southern California

Alex S. Jones, director
Shorenstein Center
Harvard University

John Lavine, dean
Medill School of Journalism
Northwestern University

Nicholas Lemann, dean
Graduate School of Journalism
Columbia University

Orville Schell, dean
Graduate School of Journalism
University of California at Berkeley

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/07/AR2006070701146_pf.htm