Confidential sources are necessary in journalism, and the main challenge is defining confidential source status and determining who deserves it, said Time Inc. Editor in Chief Norm Pearlstine on Monday.
Pearlstine addressed an audience of about 130 people at the McCormick Tribune Center for “Are Journalists Above the Law?,” part of the Crain Lecture Series. As editor in chief of Time Inc., Pearlstine oversees the publication of 155 magazines. He will step down on Dec. 31 after 10 years in the position.
Whether journalists have the right to use and conceal confidential sources has been controversial since 2003, when syndicated columnist Robert Novak identified Valerie Plame as a CIA operative. Revealing a person’s involvement in the CIA is considered a crime. Time correspondent Matt Cooper and New York Times reporter Judith Miller also had information on Plame and were ordered by the grand jury investigating the case to turn in their sources.
Miller served 85 days in jail before revealing her source. Pearlstine and Time decided to allow Cooper to hand over his notes and testify the day he was going to be arrested, consequently avoiding jail time.
Pearlstine has faced criticism for the decision, with some accusing him of elevating corporate interests above freedom of the press. But Pearlstine defended his actions Monday and said a lawyer for Karl Rove, one of Cooper’s sources, gave them permission to reveal the source.
Pearlstine said the company hasn’t suffered from the decision as many feared it would.
“(It was thought) sources would be afraid to speak to Time, but confidential sources are still speaking,” Pearlstine said.
In his speech, Pearlstine emphasized the importance of protecting sources.
He said a source should be confidential if the information is of public interest and the provider’s livelihood or reputation is at risk. Still, he said the need for confidentiality should be balanced with other issues like legality.
“Reporters are not above the law,” Pearlstine said.
Although Pearlstine spent most of his presentation discussing the Plame case, he also addressed his views on the future of the media. He said reporting has improved over the last decade, but news outlets need a better method of distributing information as society progresses technologically.
People are becoming inundated by corporate enterprises as a source for news, Pearlstine said. Corporations such as Google and Yahoo display the day’s top headlines on their Web sites – but most of them are irrelevant.
“If Britney Spears’ baby is in more demand, then that will be shown (on the Web sites),” he said.
Medill freshman Tricia Bobeda said the most interesting aspect of the lecture was Pearlstine’s ability to shed light on the Plame scandal, but she said she also enjoyed his take on the status of news in general.
“I was encouraged by his view of journalism,” Bobeda said. “It’s nice to hear someone not be negative on the future of the field.”
After his retirement from Time Inc., Pearlstine will become a senior adviser of Time Warner and plans to complete his novel, “Off the Record: the Use and Misuse of Anonymous Sources.”
Reach Jasett Chatham at [email protected].
