General Interest Review 00010

Investigative Reporting

Investigative reporting is a variety of journalism that uncovers facts that official sources refuse to disclose, or purposefully cover up to protect reputations, folly, and the illusion that governments work primarily for average citizens. Though many "media" "outlets" claim to practice this type of reporting through a variety of different methods, the hallmark of these great stories -- which represent the very reason most blue-blooded journalists go into the business in the first place -- is the official response.

This week's story in the New York Times about the CIA making payments to the allegedly corrupt brother of Afghan Puppet-in-Chief Hamid Karzai drew such a response from the administration of President Barack Obama. It should be noted that members of this administration takes pains to share with anyone who will stick a camera near them that they are the most transparent administration in history.

"Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, declined to comment on Mr. Karzai’s financial relationship with the C.I.A., referring questions to the spy agency."

Perhaps The New York Times should've taken a lesson from Lawrence Lessig, and withheld disclosing this information until they thought about what type of a response they could get from the government.