Do You Want The Truth?

With the Plame leak as a launching point, David Sanger of the Times discusses the role of "classified" information in the daily give and take of Washington.  A flavor:

Reporters worry about a chilling effect, one that would make it even harder to explain what the government is doing. Some government officials say they fear the impact because they know that it is often difficult these days to try to justify a national security decision, or warn of an impending threat, or even complain about some kinds of budget cuts without slipping into classified territory.

...There are moments when what is classified in the morning becomes public record in the afternoon. Two weeks ago, President Bush gave a speech defending his record fighting terrorism, saying the United States and its allies had stopped 10 terror plots, including three in the United States. He described none of them, and his spokesman, Scott McClellan, declined to provide details.

BUT by late afternoon - after heated conversations between reporters and the White House, and then the White House and intelligence agencies - the White House e-mailed reporters a list of plots. It was a mix of cases that were well known and a few never before made public. A senior official who talked about them that night joked that a few hours earlier he might have been jailed for discussing the subject.

We will keep it in mind.

Comments

[topsecretk9]

hmmm, this make me wonder if that recent Investors Biz daily op-ed, referencing an email Rove sent to Cooper wasn't and error in writing. They haven't corrected.

[kim]

The Truth.

Who?
Moi?
Pour
Quoi?
==============

[BR]

And all, or almost all shall be revealed ;)

[Syl]

"he might have been jailed for discussing the subject."

Dream on.

Gossip is gossip and is not illegal.

If they go to print, they may be questioned as to whom they got their info from though.

So dot your little i's and cross your t's.

Don't they teach you that in J-School?

All journalism seems to be anymore is spreading gossip anyway.

[Toby Petzold]

Never mind the absurd spectacle of the liberal Left taking the side of a CIA agent and talking ---with straight faces--- about treason and national security: the next big laugh will come when these people complain that Bu$hitler Imperial War Machine, Inc. is freezing out the press and committing crimes behind the wall of censorship. If these acolytes of Daniel Ellsberg want to see the information well really dry up, let them insist on indictments for everyone in sight. That would pretty much give this Administration all the rationale they would need to never again speak to another reporter. Which, these days, I'm sure would be a blessing.

[kim]

They can blog instead.
=======================

[cathyf]

All journalism seems to be anymore is spreading gossip anyway.

Well the thing that makes it "journalism" is that you spell the source's name right. It doesn't matter whether the things that the sources are saying are obviously wacky or just plain old non-sensical. But I suppose a degree in communications doesn't actually equip a "journalist" to notice that the things that a source are claiming are internally inconsistent, or require magic to be true. As long as you spell the source's name right...

cathy :-)

[clarice]

Someone be sure to pass the Sanger article to Michelle who seems not to understand this.