「Catching potential bombers obviously is a good thing, but there are ways to do it without making news operations look like government shills,」 USA Today said in an editorial today. 「When journalists contact potential sources — whether by phone, e-mail or in person — they need people to trust that they are in fact reporters, not undercover cops.」
「What was wrong about the Seattle operation was the potential damage
to the credibility of the Associated Press by the creation of a false
news account by the government and by the impersonation of a reporter,」 a
argued. 「The technique threatens to undermine all reporters — not just
those from the AP — who seek information from sources and represent
themselves truthfully as independent journalists.」
Reuters media columnist Jack Shafer wrote: 「Whenever police officers masquerade as journalists, they introduce doubt into the public's mind about whether the next person purporting to be a journalist is actually a police officer or the stories in the news are really bait set by police.」
In Pennsylvania, The Scranton Times-Tribune Editorial Board said this: 「Democracy works only with an independent press that is not controlled by the government. The nation's Founding Fathers knew that. That's why, right there in the First Amendment, it says that Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, of the press.
「It doesn't include a specific prohibition against government agencies impersonating reporters. Perhaps the founders believed that their successors would have the good sense not to jeopardize the independence of the press.
「Recently, however, the FBI has decided to impersonate the press, thus diminishing the press』 separation from the government.」
In an opposing view published by USA Today, former FBI Assistant Director Ronald T. Hosko, now president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, said the FBI 「takes seriously its use of sensitive operations,」 adding that in the Seattle investigation 「no law was broken, no policy was avoided, nothing was traded away with an 『ends justify the means』 calculus.」
Meanwhile, AP is awaiting a reply to President and CEO Gary Pruitt's Nov. 10 letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director James Comey in which he asked who authorized the investigative tactics in 2007 and sought 「assurances that this won't happen again.」
Editorials also have appeared in The New York Times, The Denver Post, The Seattle Times, The Arizona Republic, The Spokesman-Review (in Spokane, Washington), The Repository (in Canton, Ohio) and other newspapers.
