A journalist's conscience leads her to reveal her source to the FBI. Here's why.

[DonViejo]

By Margaret Sullivan
Media Columnist

July 8 at 4:00 PM

It’s pretty much an inviolable rule of journalism: Protect your sources. Reporters have gone to jail to keep that covenant.

But Marcy Wheeler, who writes a well-regarded national security blog, not only revealed a source — she did so to the FBI, eventually becoming a witness in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of President Trump’s possible connections to Russia.

“On its face, I broke one of the cardinal rules of journalism, but what he was doing should cause a source to lose protection,” Wheeler told me in a lengthy phone interview. “It’s not a decision I regret,” she added.

That she did so, as detailed in a post last week on her emptywheel blog, stunned those who have followed her work because she has so frequently criticized American intelligence agencies and their penchant for surveilling U.S. citizens.

“For her to go to the FBI, that made my jaw drop,” said Daniel Drezner, a Tufts University professor of international politics. (He doesn’t know her personally but has followed her work.)

“It’s like Glenn Greenwald calling up the CIA and saying I’ve discovered a mole,” Drezner said. (He was referring to the Pulitzer-winning, anti-surveillance, civil liberties lawyer who is co-founder of the Intercept, which focuses on national security news.)

Wheeler hasn’t named the source publicly, though his name may soon be known to all who are following the Mueller investigation.

But her dealings with him have brought her around to believing something she initially questioned: that Russian interference in the 2016 election was a very real thing, and that Trump associates played a part.

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/she-broke-a-cardinal-rule-of-journalism-by-revealing-her-source-to-the-fbi-heres-why/2018/07/06/b3201632-8128-11e8-b9a5-7e1c013f8c33_story.html

[NoMoreRepugs]

1. Bringing Greenwald's name into the article almost

made me stop reading it.

[DonViejo]

2. That almost made me not post the article, as well.

[Wellstone ruled]

3. Same reaction when I first started reading .

Always followed Marcy for years. She has some reliable persons giving her the truth and someone in the Trump Camp is pissed. Another story the other day about the voting machines and their reliability seems to suddenly become relevant.

[Control-Z]

10. Do you have the link to that story?

I'd like to see if I get the same feeling about it. I'm not sure if maybe I already read it. But I'm not sensing that I did.

[Wellstone ruled]

11. Sorry do not,

the time frame was late November early December 2016 and referenced some vote tally machines in one County in Wisconsin that had their Seals compromised and later ended up going missing.

[Hekate]

4. KnR

[calimary]

5. Whoa...

[TygrBright]

6. This is a Big Deal in a lot of subtle ways.

That this particular journalist should make this particular decision, for these particular reasons, is a kind of Paul Revere's ride in the journalism community.

Read the blog post (linked above) as well as the article. Read the comments to the blog post.

While Wheeler is concerned about multiple issues, the gravamen of the charge is that by maintaining silence about the deceptions being perpetrated on her by her source, she is further enabling the GOP Congress to continue eroding the safety of those working on the Mueller investigation and on the legitimate sources providing useful information to that investigation.

It's a shot across the House Intel Committee's bow, and a powerful one.

appreciatively,
Bright

[enough]

9. Well said, Bright. When this first went through DU, it seemed difficult for some to

see the point of the story. You’ve explained it so well.

[mountain grammy]

7. Maybe it's don the con himself.

Or Melanie.. where the fuck is she?

After reading her blog.. chilling to the bone, it's clearly not Melanie, but still, mayber donnie?

[Honeycombe8]

8. I don't know. I'm on the fence about that.

I think that would create a chilling effect on sources talking to the press. Would there have been a deep throat, if there Bernstein & Woodward had revealed their sources to the FBI before? Probably not.