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

• Author: Fischer, Raymond L.
• Position: Book review

OFF THE RECORD: The Press, the Government, and the War over Anonymous Sources

BY NORMAN PEARLSTINE, FARRAR, 5TRAUS AND GIROUX, NEW YORK 2007, 269 PAGES, $25.00

Norman Pearlstine, now a senior advisor to the Carlyle Group, was Time Inc. editor-in-chief when Time's website disclosed Valerie Plame as a CIA operative. On Aug. 9, 2004, Judge Thomas E Hogan cited reporter Matthew Cooper and Time Inc. for contempt for refusing to give the grand jury testimony or documents concerning Coopers source for identifying Plame. Subsequently, Cooper and Time Inc. appealed to the Supreme Court. At this point, Pearlstine declared that "if Time Inc. lost the case, it would pay the fine and Cooper would go to jail" However, when the Supreme Court refused the appeal, Pearlstine recapitulated and turned the files over to the grand jury. In Off the Record, Pearlstine explains why he reversed his decision and identifies the differences between the Cooper-Time Inc. scenario and the Judith Miller-New York Times case in which Miller went to jail and The Times refused to turn over her files. Trained as an attorney himself, Pearlstine knew he would be "vilified" for betraying the freedom of the press, but steadfastly maintains that "he had no choice in the matter." One of the most difficult decisions Pearlstine had faced in 40 years as a reporter and editor, "Plamegate" proved far more complicated than it first appeared.

Pearlstine details the 200-year media tradition during which reporters went to jail and publishers paid fines to protect editorial independence. During his research, he discovered that supposedly "long-standing rules for the press and source confidentiality" never existed and that journalists lack a common understanding of the ethics of source identification. Reporters and editors have difficulty distinguishing between "confidential" and...