Legal Commentary

Journalism

By Big Tent Democrat

By Big Tent Democrat

Chris Bowers could not be more wrong on this:

Here is what the journalist who recorded the quote, Gerri Peev, which the editor of The Scotsman then published, said in justification [. . .]:

Because I don't know what the convention is in American journalism, but in Britain here we have very firm rules about the fact that generally you establish whether a conversation or interview is on or off the record before it actually happens. [. . .]

The justification for publishing the quote is entirely based on "conventions," "rules," "business," and other institutional norms. There seems to be no appreciation that Peev and her editor were personally responsible for ending someone's political advisor career over something really, really stupid. This strikes me as very much hiding behind vague institutional rules and regulations in an effort to elide personal responsibility.

This is is nonsense. There is nothing about the institution that is behind the UNIVERSAL rule that everything is on the record with a JOURNALIST absent a prior agreement otherwise. If Chris does not know this most basic rule of journalism, if Samantha Power does not know it, then they have no business, in Power's case, representing a political campaign, and in Chris' case, critiquing a journalist. This critique from Chris is simply an absurdity.

Chris may make other points worth pondering, I do not know. But his opening is so far off the mark, I did not take them in.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on March 14, 2008 (boomark / email).