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Watch Norm Pearlstine's speech:
Norm Pearlstine '64 spoke to students, faculty, alumni and guests the afternoon before the inauguration ceremony. Highlights of his talk (which included a Q&A session ) include:
*He initially didn't take the situation concerning the leak of Valerie Plame's CIA status seriously at all: "My initial reaction was that it was typical Beltway infighting, not particularly significant."
*He regards The New York Times' editorial calling for an investigation of leaks to the press "unprecedented in my experience...I thought our job was to get leaks, not to seek investigations into how they came about."
*When he did begin thinking about what would happen if the Supreme Court ruled against Time Inc., his first instinct was to resist turning over reporter Matt Cooper's notes. "I had learned at Haverford about civil disobedience, and I believed then, as I believe now, that individuals--and individual editors--have an absolute ability to engage in such acts."
*He believes that the ground rules for dealing with anonymous sources are not well understood by journalists, let alone the general public. "If I said there is a difference between anonymous and confidential, some of the best journalists in the world would say, 'You're out of your mind.'"
*Today, he says, journalists find themselves in a difficult spot. "The public does not have much sympathy for the press--we're not in a post-Watergate era--but at the same time we do need the ability to protect our sources."
*Any time a source asks for some degree of anonymity, be believes that should be "the exception, not the rule. This business should be about trying to put people on the record. We have to be much more demanding that there should be accountability from our government officials."
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