CONFIDENTIAL FILE

My Responsibilities as Your Reporter

Marie
Torre, a New York newspaper columnist, is sitting in prison today.
She’s paying a 10-day "debt to society" for refusing to divulge the
source of a news story.

And personally, I’m sorry to hear it.

Newspaper reporters aren’t special people. This, I’m realistic enough to admit.

But
I’ll never admit that the news we cover isn’t something special. And to
cover it right, we’ve got to have the trust of the people who give it
to us.

Maybe, to people outside the profession, this sounds like
a petty grievance — sour grapes from a body of working stiffs who got
their toes trampled by the courts.

I wish it were that simple.

But it’s not.

It’s true that any newspaperman, any newspaper, loves a solid expose on graft or vice.

It’s
also true that the material for a good 50% of these exposes comes from
confidential sources — from people whose jobs wouldn’t be worth an
inflated dime if it were discovered that they leaked information to the
press.

But most important is the fact that the newspaper
"expose" has been responsible for putting literally hundreds of crooks,
corrupt politicians, greedy cops and phony businessmen behind bars.

I
don’t think I’m shooting high when I say half of these exposes would
have never been written if key informants hadn’t felt that they could
trust a reporter to protect their identities.

Read between the
lines of any major scandal broken by a newspaper, and it’s pretty
obvious that somebody inside the office of somebody big touched it off.

But the "expose" isn’t the only type of story where a newsman has to shield his source.

About
15 months ago, as an example, I had another kind of story. It involved
a group of men and women in this town who undoubtedly were breaking
some federal statutes.

They were members of the "26th
of July" movement, the Cuban rebel organization which was conducting a
powerful underground campaign throughout the United States to recruit
men, arms and money to support Fidel Castro’s fight against Dictator Fulgencio Batista.

To get this story, to meet and talk with them, I had to promise I wouldn’t reveal their identities to anyone.

No
sooner had my story of the activities here in L.A. been printed than a
pair of men from a U.S. federal agency dropped by my office wanting
names.

I explained my initial agreement with the rebel group. I said It would be impossible for me to reveal any names.

The two men apparently respected what I consider my responsibility as a reporter. Without pressing me further, they left.

This I Must Do

There
isn’t a day that goes by any more when I don’t promise at least one
news source to keep his name confidential. It’s a promise that I’ve got
to keep.

If the courts continue to chip away at our
"reporter’s rights," we’ll still find stories to cover. We’ll still
pull down our weekly paychecks.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out who’ll be a loser in the long run.

As for Marie Torre’s being tossed in jail to defend our principle, I’m sorry to see it happen to a lady.

But, come to think of it, that’s no lady.

That’s just a damn good newspaperman.