WOODWARD’S SOURCES

Journalism suffered another black eye recently when veteran reporter Bob Woodward revealed he’d waited more than two years to tell his editor that he’d been told the identity of an undercover CIA operative at the center of a federal leak investigation. The revelation, along with New York Times reporter Judith Miller’s travails, has left the public wondering how much they aren’t being told. It should also make them wonder if close relationships with sources interfere with reporting the news.

For two years a federal prosecutor has been investigating who leaked the name of the CIA agent, Valerie Plame, to the media. Her name was revealed in July 2003 by syndicated columnist Robert Novak a week after her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, published a column in the New York Times saying that White House claims about Saddam Hussein trying to get uranium from Niger were false. To find out who leaked Ms. Plame’s name, reporters were subpoenaed and threatened with jail time if they did not reveal their sources. Ms. Miller spent 85 days in jail before agreeing to testify after receiving a waiver of confidentiality from one source.

In late October, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, was indicted. He resigned, but the investigation is ongoing.

Now, Bob Woodward, part of the twosome that broke the landmark Watergate story, has said he knew about Ms. Plame long before Mr. Novak and that his source wasn’t Mr. Libby. Most troubling is that Mr. Woodward didn’t tell his editors about the conversation until last month. Mr. Woodward said he kept a low profile during the case

to protect his sources.

As University of Maine journalism professor Shannon Martin puts it, the job of a journalist is to collect information and report it, not to selectively provide it to the public. Staffers at the Post said they believe Mr. Woodward keeps information and sources out of the paper so he can use them in his books. If this is true, it is wrong. It is also wrong for Mr. Woodward to not share critical information for fear of offending a source that he believes he will later need for a book.

The danger in all this, as Professor Martin points out, is that people will stop trusting what are considered reliable media sources such as the Post and Times. When they do, they begin to look for other sources of information, which tend to be narrower in scope and often reflect a reader’s existing views and values. This can further fracture an already divided nation.

How odd that Mr. Woodward, who became famous for uncovering government secrets, is now advocating for secrecy.