Time editor says data not worth writer's vow

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Aug 17, 2005 | by Associated Press

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

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.

"A 90-second conversation with the president's spin doctor, who was trying to undermine a whistleblower, probably didn't deserve confidential source status," Pearlstine said during a panel discussion sponsored by Court TV.

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, Valerie Plame.

The leak of Plame's identity prompted a federal probe that landed New York Times reporter Judith Miller in jail for her refusal to identify a source. It nearly led to Cooper's jailing too -- until he and Time agreed to reveal what they knew.

In a controversial decision, Pearlstine handed over Cooper's notes, but the special prosecutor in charge of the case still demanded the reporter's testimony. At that point, Cooper said he had received a waiver from Rove allowing him to talk, and he testified before a grand jury.

Pearlstine suggested Tuesday that such problems might be avoided if reporters were more selective with promises of confidentiality. But he said getting journalists to go along may be difficult.

Many reporters struggle daily with people they interview who want the public to know something but are reluctant to be identified as the source of that information.

First Amendment attorney Floyd Abrams, who represented Miller and was part of Tuesday's panel, said the issue can be especially sticky because journalists are often asked to promise confidentiality before they know what a source has to say.

Once the promise is made, "the information, very often ... is not worth anything," Abrams said.

Miller, who never wrote about Plame, is now serving jail time to protect a source who provided information she did not print.

Time's decision to turn over Cooper's notes identifying Rove as a source was met with dismay by many reporters, who said whistle- blowers would be less likely to reveal government secrets if they thought journalists might renege on promises of confidentiality.

Legislation has been introduced in Congress to protect reporters from having to identify confidential sources. So-called shield laws already exist in 31 states and the District of Columbia.