When Norman 
Pearlstine--as editor in chief of Time Inc.--agreed to give prosecutor 
Patrick Fitzgerald a reporter's notes of a conversation with a 
"confidential source," he was vilified for betraying the freedom of the 
press. But in this hard-hitting inside story, Pearlstine shows that 
"Plamegate" was not the clear case it seemed to be--and that 
confidentiality has become a weapon in the White House's war on the 
press, a war fought with the unwitting complicity of the press itself. Watergate 
 and the publication of the Pentagon Papers are the benchmark incidents 
of government malfeasance exposed by a fearless press. But as Pearlstine 
 explains with great clarity and brio, the press's hunger for a new 
Watergate has made reporters vulnerable to officials who use 
confidentiality to get their message out, even if it means leaking state 
 secrets and breaking the law. Prosecutors appointed to investigate the 
government have investigated the press instead; news organizations such 
as "The New York Times "have defended the principle of confidentiality 
at all costs--implicitly putting themselves above the law. Meanwhile, 
the use of unnamed sources has become common in everything from 
celebrity weeklies to the so-called papers of record. What is to be 
done? Pearlstine calls on Congress to pass a federal shield law 
protecting journalists from the needless intrusions of government; at 
the same time, he calls on the press to name its sources whenever 
possible. "Off the Record "is a powerful argument with the vividness and 
 narrative drive of the best long-form journalism; it is sure to spark 
controversy among the people who run the government--and among the 
people who tell their stories.

Off The Record: The Press, the Government, and the War over Anonymous Sources PDF

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