Newsroom Theatrics

Perhaps the Karl Rove leak investigation will succeed in sticking because it affects D.C. journalists and their friends. Pretty much anyone who runs in the D.C. media social circuit (or anyone who attends the Hotline comedy shows) knows Matthew Cooper and what a fabulously fun guy he is. The idea that he could come “this” close to going to jail just seems wrong. There are certainly journalists in D.C. who deserve to be locked away for a very long period of time for one thing or another, but Cooper wasn’t one of them. And that makes other good journalists very nervous. Just as an experienced campaign advanceman will tell you that a hungry press corps is a hostile press corps, nervous journalists are equally dangerous and prone to hostility. Just ask Scott.

Exhibit A that this burgeoning scandal has some sticking power is that it’s beginning to get wrapped up in newsroom theatrics. Two examples from this week:

• CQ’s editor sent a memo out to staff this week asking them not to sign petitions in support of Judy Miller: “The petition in support of Judith Miller’s refusal to reveal her confidential sources is a worthy effort. But as CQ reporters and editors, we must take the extreme position of neutrality and disengagement. Her case is too close to an ongoing story that we are, and will be, covering in the publications of Congressional Quarterly. And the problem is, we don’t know where this story leads and what the outcome will be, and thus how we will have to cover it. For that reason, as much as we all feel solidarity with a fellow reporter and colleague, CQ editorial staff should not sign this petition.”

• Also Time’s editors met with a furious reception earlier this week in a gathering of the D.C. bureau. Norman Pearlstine, Time Inc.’s editor in chief and who just might be the most unpopular man in journalism today (which is saying something), joined his deputy, John Huey, and Time ME Jim Kelly to hear from 18 D.C. scribes, “who were encouraged not to hold back in their comments or questions. According to participants, they complied.”

  “If this were a State Department briefing, it would have been one of those sessions where the participants come out and say there was a full and frank discussion,” Karen Tumulty told the NYT.
  

Once a story starts working its way into the grandstanding world of newsrooms, you’ve already lost the battle.

Perhaps next we’ll see a multi-organization national byline strike on behalf of Miller and protesting Time’s decision to hand over the memos?

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