Time Editor Says Rove Tip Wasn't Worth Confidentiality Pledge

[DoYouEverWonder]

August 17, 2005

NEW YORK - An anonymous tip that nearly landed Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper in jail probably wasn't valuable enough to justify a promise of confidentiality, his editor said yesterday.

Speaking at a panel discussion in New York sponsored by Court TV, Norman Pearlstine, editor in chief of Time Inc., lamented that reporters covering Washington have become too quick to offer total anonymity in exchange for information.

Confidentiality should be reserved for special circumstances, he said.

"A 90-second conversation with the President's spin doctor, who was trying to undermine a whistle-blower, probably didn't deserve confidential-source status," Pearlstine said.

According to Cooper, presidential adviser Karl Rove disclosed during a telephone call in 2003 that Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson was married to a CIA agent. Cooper said he did not learn the wife's name until later.

http://mediachannel.org/blog/node/653


Well at least Cooper's boss gets it. Too bad the NYT doesn't or is it that the NYT has more at stake then just poor Judy's 1st Amendment rights?

[tsuki]

1. Yep, promising confidentiality to a traitor just ain't the thing. eom