Time editor: Info given to reporter wasn't worth a promise of confidential [View All]

http://www.fox23news.com/news/national/story.aspx?content_id=A7CCAD02-2BFF-40AA-8717-658ABEFAEC44

Time editor: Info given to reporter wasn't worth a promise of confidentiality

NEW YORK (AP) - An anonymous tip that nearly landed Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper in jail probably was not valuable enough to justify a promise of confidentiality, his editor said Tuesday.

Norman Pearlstine, editor in chief of Time Inc., lamented that reporters covering Washington have become too quick to offer total anonymity in exchange for information.

"A 90-second conversation with the president's spin doctor, who was trying to undermine a whistle-blower, probably didn't deserve confidential source status," Pearlstine said during a panel discussion sponsored by Court TV.

According to Cooper, presidential adviser Karl Rove disclosed during a telephone call in 2003 that Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson was married to a CIA agent, Valerie Plame.