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leaks
This page considers leaks, in particular unattributed
briefings and questions of media management
It covers -
introduction
UK politician James Callaghan quipped
You
know the difference between leaking and briefing? Leaking
is what you do and briefing is what I do
Unauthorised
and unattributed disclosure of confidential information
has occurred since time immemorial. It is a standard practice
in politics and in business, with people in positions
of responsibility providing information to journalists,
public interest groups or associates in order to -
- reward
an associate by providing special access to commercially
sensitive information (eg enable someone to buy or sell
shares ahead of the market, acquire or sell land or
otherwise gain financial advantage)
- subvert
efforts to cover-up a scandal, for example Deep Throat's
revelations about Watergate
- 'manage'
the media by presenting bad news in a positive light
or distance a public figure from an unpopular decision
- reward
a journalist (and implicitly punish a competing journalist
who does not enjoy that privileged access)
- deflate
the impact of a rival's major announcement or erode
the credibility of someone who is perceived as likely
to make a critical statement from within an organisation
- pump
or deflate the price of shares
- reinforce
the leaker's self importance or provide an opportunity
for grownups to play cloak & dagger games
Leaks
can involve provision of documentation (with the embargoed
print publication or photocopy that "fell off the
back of a track" now being supplemented by an email
from a throwaway webmail address), anonymous telephone
calls and SMS, identified calls or face to face meetings
(including meetings in the leaker's office). It may involve
disclosure of information that is meant to be kept secret
(although on occasion should be available to the community).
As Callaghan's quip indicates, it may instead involve
'off the record' briefings.
studies
Points of entry to the Australian literature include Michael
Chesterman's Freedom of Speech in Australian Law:
A Delicate Plant (Aldershot: Ashgate 2000), Anne
Summers' 1981 'The Role and Ethics of Leaks' in 53 Australian
Quarterly, Rodney Tiffen's Scandals: Media, Politics
and Corruption in Contemporary Australia (Sydney:
UNSW Press 1999), Kathryn Flynn's 2006 'Covert Disclosures:
Unauthorized leaking, public officials and the public
sphere' in 7 Journalism Studies 2 and Silencing
Dissent (Sydney: Allen & Unwin 2007) edited by
Clive Hamilton & Sarah Maddison.
Perspectives overseas include David Hooper's Official
Secrets: The Use & Abuse of the Act (London: Secker
& Warburg 1987), Mary Cheh's 'Spies, Leakers, Whistle-Blowers,
and Burglers: Real and Imagined Threats to National Security' in
National Security: Surveillance and Accountability
in a Democratic Society (Cowansville: Les Editions
Yvon Blais 1989), Brian McNair's ' PR must die: spin,
anti-spin and political public relations in the UK, 1997-2004'
in 5 Journalism Studies 3, Dennis Kavanagh &
Anthony Seldon' The Powers behind the Prime Minister:
the Hidden Influence of Number Ten (London: HarperCollins
1999).
Acounts by practitioners include Helen Thomas' Watchdogs
of Democracy?: The Waning Washington Press Corps and How
It Has Failed the Public (New York: Scribner 2006),
Bernard Ingham's Kill the Messenger (London:
HarperCollins 1991), Mary Matalin & James Carville's
All's Fair: Love, War and Running for President (London:
Hutchinson 1994), Larry Speakes' Speaking Out
(New York: Avon 1988), The Spin Doctor's Diary: Inside
No. 10 with New Labour (London: Hodder & Stoughton
2005) by Lance Price, Marlin Fitzwater's Call the
Briefing! (New York: Times 1995), Bob Woodward's
The Secret Man (New York: Simon & Schuster 2006)
and All the President's Men (New York: Simon
& Schuster 1974) with Carl Bernstein.
For 'spin' see in particular Ingham's Wages of Spin
(London: John Murray 2003), Michael Cockerell's Live From
Number 10: The Inside Story of Prime Ministers and Television
(London: Faber 1988) and Sources Close the Prime Minister
(London: Macmillan 1984), Howard Kurtz' Spin
Cycle: Inside the Clinton Propaganda Machine (London:
Macmillan 1988), Nicholas Jones' Soundbites and Spin
Doctors: How Politicians Manipulate the Media -
And Vice Versa (London: Cassell 1995), John Maltese'
Spin Control: The White House Office of Communications
and the Management of Presidential News (Chapel Hill:
Uni of North Carolina Press 1994) and Stephen Ponder's
Managing the Press: Origins of the Media Presidency,
1897-1933 (Basingtoke: Palgrave 1998).
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