Here?s a good presumption for talking to news reporters: Everything is on the record.
Reporters commit their lives to informing the public. They are information raptors.
They don?t have a lot of time for idle chitchat. Gathering information is but a means to the ultimate end: publishing information.
Lt. Gov. Michael Steele demonstrated that last week when comments he made about President Bush ended up out in the open even though journalists who heard him say it did not identify him by name.
Steele, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, says he thought he was in an “off-the-record” session with reporters. Reporters present say they thought it was a “background” session.
Generally both are a waste of reporters? time.
Too often “off the record” and “background” information serves not the public, but the narrow special interests of politicians and power brokers.
They avoid accountability.
They gain deniability.
They can try to get some ink-stained wretch to help them sling mud at opponents while they appear to rise above the fray, keeping their hands clean.
They can test waters, float trial balloons and check the weathervane without making any commitment to the public they are supposed to serve.
Unless a reporter agrees explicitly in advance that a specific bit of information is off the record, it?s on. On the record is the norm; off is the deviation.
Reporters, not sources, decide what is off the record or on background.
If a source says something is off the record or background only and the reporter does not respond, anything said is on the record.
The only exceptions some reporters make is in interviewing people who have little experience dealing with reporters. Sometimes those folks need a little slack. Usually they get it.
Good citizens who want to expose evil can turn to news reporters who, once they promise confidentiality, will take the secret to the grave.
Reporters have gone to prison because they refused to burn a source.
The First Law for reporters is: Says who?
The best are credible sources with direct knowledge willing to put names behind what they say.
Second best are two or three credible corroborating sources with direct knowledge who wish to remain anonymous.
Believability decays from there.
So, when reporters hear right from the horse?s mouth what a politician really thinks, they feel some obligation to inform the public. Why would a politician want to be honest only off the record?
In this case, if Steele did it on purpose, he played it just right. That?s another way savvy politicians put to good use such traditions as off the record and background.
A Republican Senate candidate in a Blue state, potentially burdened by a limping lame duck Republican president, could do worse than deniably put a little distance in the collective mind of the masses between himself and the president.
Face it, Republicans need a Senate seat a lot more than they need the appearance of total hugs and kisses in party ranks.
Steele adroitly ? whether consciously or not ? used supposed confusion about “off the record” and “background” to shift position subtly without having to take a stand.
Frank Keegan is editor of The Baltimore Examiner. He can be reached at [email protected].
