Reporters Quotes
Abe Rosenthal, statement to a reporter who he fired for having an affair with a politician, and continuing to cover his politics. There are multiple variations of this quote in circulation – this seems to be the most accurate.
There has been a constant conflict between the government and the press regarding the right of a journalist to refuse to disclose his/her sources for a story or to reveal his/her notes or outtakes. Reporters would sometimes be subpoenaed and if they refused to testify or disclose the subpoenaed information, they could be held in contempt of court and fined, jailed or both. However, one of the major reasons reporters have been able to get information on the malfeasance and incompetence of government is that leakers and whistleblowers have been willing to provide information to the press is that they are confident that the press will not disclose the source. The courts have ruled that journalists have no special rights regarding subpoenas, so the outcome of the conflict depends on the political decision of the administration. Risen had been subpoenaed during the George W. Bush Administration and he and the New York Times had fought the case all the way up to the Supreme Court which ruled, that Risen had no special right wo withhold information about a possible crime. That seemed to leave Risen with his “two choices”.
Reporter Wesley Lowery was arrested in the 2014 protest demonstrations in Ferguson, MO when the police were badly mishandling the crowd control of people angry that a young black man with is hands up was shot and killed by a white officer of the almost totally segregated police force in an overwhelmingly black community. The area, was a vestige of the Jim Crow South and resented the press and especially the outside press.
His use of the word “character” was not meant in the general sense of a reporter’s behavior and demeanor as a human being, but rather the journalists character relative to the battle—he does not wish to kill or injure anyone but wants to communicate the events to the public. This was the “purity” to which the General referred. Actually, a number of journalists and photographers followed the suggestion and wore a white—what looks today as a full-length lab coat. See http://memory.loc.gov/pnp/cwp/4a{40000}/4a{40900}/4a{40924}r.jpg for a photo of the uniform that photographer Mathew Brady wore.
He had just returned from Darfur in which there was a genocide and ethnic cleansing in progress with the Arabs murdering the Africans in the province with the condonation and assistance of the Sudanese government.
The issue under discussion was the fact that the United States Military does not, unlike all civilian courts, maintain a docket of court martials. An interested citizen or a reporter, who usually has a right to attend and observe the proceeding has no way of finding out where and when the proceeding will take place unless the military chooses to inform people or make it public. Courts Martial are legally open to observers except for special circumstances—like civilian criminal trials. However, the military wants as little coverage as possible.
Many scholars believe that complete objectivity is impossible psychologically. Hence, neutrality is a better standard and goal some argue.
