Norman Pearlstine, the former editor-in-chief of Time Inc., came to speak last Tuesday, Sept. 25th at an event presented by Stony Brook’s School of Journalism. Pearlstine, who oversaw the editorial content of Time Inc.’s 154 magazines, spoke about the role of the press in America and the complex relationship between journalists and their sources.
Pearlstine started the lecture by asking the audience a series of questions in relation to the role of the press and the law. He also referred to the controversy surrounding Matthew Cooper and Time Inc., regarding the investigation of the Valerie Plame case and confidential sources.
Journalists and sources have always had a complex relationship. Sources worry about how the journalist will present them to the public. Their reputation, careers and livelihood could be at stake. Journalists must be ‘careful not to misuse them,’ and ‘need to not make promises to sources we can’t keep,’ Pearlstine said.
Journalists must also question the motives of some sources before they take into consideration all the information provided by them. ‘Some people have terrible motives, but wonderful information,’ Pearlstine said.
At the same time, other problems arise regarding the exact meaning behind some of the information. Are the information passed to the journalist quotable? The vagueness of this relationship results with many sources that are not aware of the difference between ‘anonymous’ and ‘confidential’ information. Even among journalists, there is not a consensus for the exact meaning behind this terminology. This is where many problems arise between journalists, their sources and the law. The uproar over the disclosure of the identity of former CIA agent, Valerie Plame, started off with an op-ed by former ambassador Joe Wilson, entitled, ‘What I didn’t Find in Africa,’ published in the New York Times on July 6, 2003.
Wilson wrote in his op-ed that President Bush’s administration exaggerated unreliable claims that Iraq was planning to purchases uranium yellowcake to justify the war on Iraq. In response to this op-ed, Robert Novak identified Plame as ‘Wilson’s wife’ publicly as ‘an agency operative on weapons of mass destruction’ named ‘Valerie Plame’ in his syndicated column in The Washington Post. Novak’s public disclosure of Mrs. Wilson’s then-classified CIA identity led to CIA leak grand jury investigation, resulting in the indictment and prosecution of Libby Lewis, the former advisor to President Bush. In the process of this trial, one key question that arose was who leaked this information to the press? Among journalists, one of the key standards to follow by is to protect the confidentiality of sources. Journalists understand the trust that sources bestow on them.
‘A lot of the best journalism requires confidential sources,’ Pearlstine said. ‘We ought to recognize how to protect them,’ he continued. So, when the court ordered him to hand over Matthew Cooper’s notes to a prosecutor investigating the leak, Pearlstine was forced to into a difficult situation.
Should he follow the court’s order and hand over the notes, thus jeopardizing some of Cooper’s sources or should he ignore the order? He decided to follow the court’s order, saving Cooper form jail time despite the heavy criticism he received among other journalists.
Pearlstine believed he made the right decision. ‘We are not an agent of the government. The reason we are called the fourth estate is to hold the government to scrutiny. ‘[We must] ask ourselves, if we don’t tolerate them to be above the law, we have to hold that for ourselves,’ Pearlstine said.
