Saw this interesting articleabout the Chicago Tribune’s cooperation with FBI regarding the reporting of the Blagojevich investigation. According to the Tribune, the FBI requested and on numerous occasions the Tribune complied with not reporting all of the information the Tribune had uncovered.
To say that this is unusual is a bit of an understatement. Even the Tribune says:
“It’s very important for news organizations to remain independent from law enforcement. Independence is the key to journalistic integrity. When you enter into agreements or partnerships, you find your independence compromised,” said Kelly McBride, media ethicist at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla. “If we are too cozy with law enforcement, we will have no credibility when we question law enforcement, in the eyes of the public.”
Fiztgerald was equally impressed by the unique support from the Tribune:
We thought we’d never have the opportunity to install the bug or place the telephone tap and we made an urgent request for the Tribune not to publish that story,” Fitzgerald said. “That is a very rare thing for us to do and it’s an even rarer thing for a newspaper to grant.
When you think about Press involvement with government secrets you don’t tend to think of it in a supportive, positive relationship (Think NY Times). Do you think the Tribune’s unusual support was for a unique sense of morality or patriotism? Or, perhaps, do you think it could be because of this:
Count Two
Sections 666(a)(1)(B) and 2.
Beginning no later than November 2008 to the present, in Cook County, in the Northern District of Illinois, defendants ROD R. BLAGOJEVICH and JOHN HARRIS, being agents of the State of Illinois, a State government which during a one-year period, beginning January 1, 2008 and continuing to the present, received federal benefits in excess of $10,000, corruptly solicited and demanded a thing of value, namely, the firing of certain Chicago Tribune editorial members responsible for widely-circulated editorials critical of ROD R. BLAGOJEVICH, intending to be influenced and rewarded in connection with business and transactions of the State of Illinois involving a thing of value of $5,000 or more, namely, the provision of millions of dollars in financial assistance by the State of Illinois, including through the Illinois Finance Authority, an agency of the State of Illinois, to the Tribune Company involving the Wrigley Field baseball stadium; in violation of Title 18, United States Code,
I used to manage the media relations area for a company I worked for. It was a constant struggle to keep from storming down to one of the newspapers whenever I saw a negative story about my company or industry. Fortunately, I never did. Early on in my role I was given sage advice,
“Don’t start fights with people who buy ink by the barrel!”
I’m guessing that’s advice that Blagojevich never received!
