By Nick Madigan
The Baltimore Sun
Published: 2/11/2007
Excerpt:
The trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, and recent disclosures about the relationship of CNBC's Maria Bartiromo with a banking executive are shining a harsh light on the sometimes overly symbiotic relationships between reporters and their sources.
In the Libby trial, some of Washington's highest-profile journalists -- including NBC's Tim Russert, host of "Meet the Press," and Judith Miller, formerly with The New York Times -- have been forced to explain under oath the intricacies of their off-the-record dealings with White House officials, something that normally stays well hidden.
Bartiromo, a 39-year-old financial reporter and anchor, has faced questions from other journalists about her relationship with Citigroup's Todd Thomson, which led to his ouster last month as chief of the bank's wealth management unit. Her job has so far been unaffected.
While reporters who cover politicians and corporate executives have little choice but to cultivate confidential sources to cover their beats properly, journalism critics say that some of those relationships are too cozy, too self-serving and, ultimately, harmful to the notion of a free press. ...
... Bob Steele, a senior faculty member in journalism ethics at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., said the Libby case "may be one of those where veteran journalists are prone to too easily and too quickly give the protection of confidentiality" to a source.
"Sometimes it happens out of a sense of familiarity and the kind of give-and-take relationship between a reporter and a government official, a law enforcement officer, the coach of a team or a business executive -- someone the journalist covers regularly," Steele said. But such protection "should be well down on the list of options that the journalist chooses for gaining information," he said.
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