The New Yorker | The Washington Post | The New York Times | Wired | Guardian | All Things D
The New Yorker on Tuesday introduced its new, anonymous electronic tip tool Strongbox, coincidentally on the heels of renewed concerns over privacy for journalists' sources following revelations of Department of Justice surveillance of AP staffers (which The Washington Post's Timothy B. Lee notes is "likely perfectly legal")

The Strongbox site ostensibly allows people to submit letters, documents, emails or any other files to the New Yorker anonymously. It was developed in conjunction with Wired investigations editor Kevin Poulsen and the late Web activist and developer Aaron Swartz, who hanged himself in January after facing charges of wire fraud and computer fraud. Poulsen, whose publication also is owned by New Yorker parent Conde Nast, wrote about Swartz's involvement, and why Strongbox was a necessity.

There’s a growing technology gap: phone records, e-mail, computer forensics, and outright hacking are valuable weapons for anyone looking to identify a journalist’s source. With some exceptions, the press has done little to keep pace: our information-security efforts tend to gravitate toward the parts of our infrastructure that accept credit cards.

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Denver Post | CNN
A judge in Arapahoe County, Colo., said Fox News reporter Jana Winter won't yet be compelled to testify. Attorneys for James Holmes, who is accused of last year's theater shooting in Aurora, Colo., want Winter to reveal which law enforcement sources told her Holmes had sent a disturbing notebook to a University of Colorado psychiatrist.

Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. ruled Winter won't have to testify until he decides whether to admit the notebook as evidence, John Ingold reports. (more...)

Fox News | BuzzFeed | Courthouse News Service
Jana Winter won't reveal which law enforcement sources told her Aurora, Colo., shooting suspect James Holmes sent a notebook to a University of Colorado psychiatrist. And she may go to jail because of it.

The Fox News reporter's scoop last July is at the center of a fight between the reporter and Holmes' attorneys that's now playing out in an Arapahoe County courtroom, an unbylined report on Fox's site says. The judge who approved a subpoena for her sources -- who Holmes' attorneys claim violated a gag order by sharing details about the notebook -- has since stepped down, and at a hearing April 1 Judge Carlos Samour Jr. said the motion "presented her with a 'Hobson’s Choice,' " the Fox report says:

If forced to testify, Winter would either reveal her confidential sources in the nation's highest profile trial – perhaps destroying her career as an investigative reporter – or spend up to six months in jail, according to Judge Samour.

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A sure-to-be updated list of sources in the ever-more-spiraling story, in very rough chronological order of appearance:

• Married CIA director who had an affair with his biographer: Named as David Petraeus, retired U.S. general.
• Biographer who had affair with Petraeus and also allegedly sent harassing emails to another woman she suspected was competition for married CIA director's affections: Named as Paula Broadwell.
• Woman who received those emails and complained to FBI: Named as Jill Kelley, based on information from "three senior law enforcement officials with know­ledge of the episode."
• FBI agent who championed investigation into Kelley's in-box, sent her shirtless pictures of himself and alerted first U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert, then House Majority Leader Eric Cantor to his concerns the investigation had stalled: Has been named as Frederick W. Humphries II.
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BuzzFeed
While BuzzFeed's Michael Hastings was reporting his story about U.S. Ambassador Christopher J. Stevens' diary, he had a salty exchange with Hillary Clinton aide Philippe Reines. It was testy from the start, which means by the time these guys got to their third round of emails their irons were particularly hot:

Hastings: Why don't you give answers that aren't bullshit for a change? (more...)

Joel on the Road | VoiceofSanDiego.org | Fishbowl LA
VoiceofSanDiego.org published a stunning story Monday about a local school district that was on the hook for $877 million in interest after borrowing $105 million. The story got national attention and garnered reporter Will Carless a spot on CNBC, which credited him with breaking the story.

That irritated Michigan journalist Joel Thurtell, who had written about the bond deal already and helped Carless with his story. Thurtell wrote in a letter to CNBC that, contrary to what was said on the air, he was the one who broke this story.

Note that he corrected your reporter for mispronouncing his name, but allowed your staffer’s statement that he broke the Poway story to pass.

Will Carless and the Voice of San Diego did NOT find, nor did they break, the Poway story.

Thurtell then followed it up with another post accusing Voice of San Diego of "journalistic impropriety." (more...)

CNN
Ari Fleischer, press secretary for part of President George W. Bush's first term, writes that he "would have been laughed out of the briefing room" if he had tried to get reporters to let him approve or clean up a quotation, a practice revealed last month by The New York Times. "As a former press secretary, I'm all for trying to control the press, but quote approval goes too far." The practice started late in Bush's second term, Fleischer writes, based on a conversation he had with The New York Times' Peter Baker.

Like Prohibition, it began with good intent. Reporters covering Bush's second term, under pressure from editors not to use unnamed sources in their stories, started asking their sources if a background quote, attributed to a senior aide, could instead be turned into an on-the-record quote, with the aide's name in print. I e-mailed last week with several former Bush staffers and many confirmed they engaged in that practice. ... The sentence was e-mailed to the aide, and when permission was granted to use it, quote approval among the most senior aides got started.

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Tara Doolittle, one of the University of Texas press officers who recently reviewed a Washington Post story prior to publication, is a former reporter for The Austin American-Statesman. So did she ever allow sources to do what she did?

"The answer has always been no, whether I was the reporter or the editor,” Doolittle said, noting that she spent 10 years as an editor.

Doolittle, who became director of media outreach for UT in November, was a reporter when I worked at the Statesman.

Gary Susswein, director of media relations at UT, went through de Vise’s article "with a heavy red pen,” according to the Texas Observer. He, too, worked at the Statesman, serving for some time as metro editor. (He's on vacation this week.)

Doolittle said Post reporter Daniel de Vise told UT media representatives that sharing his story drafts was part of his normal process, and his editors knew about it. The Post has since tightened its policy on allowing sources to review stories, saying editors will grant permission to do so "extremely rarely."

Aside from saying de Vise’s offer was unusual, Doolittle declined to comment on another reporter’s methods. Given the opportunity to review a story again, she’d take it. “I’m not a reporter anymore.”

Related: Washington Post reporter sent drafts to sources (Texas Observer) | What are the arguments for, against sending stories to sources before publication? (Poynter)

As Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli promised Wednesday, The Washington Post is tightening its standards regarding whether sources can see stories before publication. Such instances will be permitted "extremely rarely" by the managing or executive editor.

The paper also is clamping down on quote approval:

We should not allow sources to change what was said in an original interview, although accuracy or the risk of losing an on-the-record quote from a crucial source may sometimes require it. A better and more acceptable alternative is to permit a source to add to a quotation and then explain that sequence to readers.

The full memo:

To the staff:

Over the last several days, there have been reports raising compelling questions of journalistic ethics in the practices of allowing sources to set rules on the use of quotations and the sharing of story drafts. We’d like to remind everyone of some core principles and lay down guidelines that should govern those practices at The Post.

The central principle of our journalism is to report the facts as closely as we can ascertain them. We should never do or promise to do anything that would shade the truth or call into question our commitment to reporting the news accurately and fairly. That is essential to the trust we enjoy from the people we work for, our readers.

In response to the issues raised recently, we are modifying the relevant sections of The Post Stylebook. Please read this carefully. We encourage further discussion and will incorporate these specific points in upcoming sessions of Newsroom University.

Marcus Liz John Shirley Peter

Our objective in quoting people is to capture both their words and intended meaning accurately. That requires care in negotiating ground rules with sources. We do not allow sources to change the rules governing specific quotations after the fact. Once a quote is on the record, it remains there. (more...)