THE POT CALLS THE KETTLE BLACK

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100110037-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 37
• Publication Date: May 11, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/03/09: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100110037-9
AFi:CLc,1I r-aRt
ON PAGE
WASHINGTON POST
11 May 1986
INSIGHT
The Pot Calls the
Kettle
Black
If the Administration Is Hunting Leakers, the Enemy Is Within
By Jim Anderson sitting alone at a linen-covered viet freighter was bound for Nica=
room-service table i
th
HEN CIA C
id
n
e m
HIEF William
dle of ragua with crates of MiGs on its
w Casey and President Rea- the half-darkened room, eating a decks-justifying the t f
moo
R
damage done to national security by
leaks to the press, they come to
court with unclean hands, tainted by
years of manipulation of the press
through calculated leaks by their
administration.
To a journalist, the most troubl-
ing thing about this is that report-
ers have been eager accomplices,
becoming an extension of the ex-
ecutive branch and glorifying the
president by letting themselves be
used. Casey's threat of prosecution
of the recipients of some leaks
comes closer to an angry quarrel in
a partnership than a question of en-
forcing the law.
Although the practice of orches.
trated government leaks goes back
to Franklin D. Roosevelt, this ad-
ministration has turned the leak
into an art. It takes the form of ca-
sual tips, institutionalized back-
grounders and insider dope ses-
sions, much of it directed at enhanc.
ing the image of Reagan as a genial,
principled mastermind who not only
knows when every sparrow falls but
sometimes revives deserving little
birdies that catch his benevolent
eye.
The pattern became clear at Rea-
gan's first economic summit in
1981 in Ottawa. Secretary of State
Alexander Haig would give on-the-
record briefings to the press corps,
but apparently he was insufficiently
passionate on the subject of Rea-
gan's mastery of global economics
and strategy.
So Mark Weinberg of the White
House press office would circulate
mysteriously through the American
press room, telling certain favored
reporters of certain favored organ-
izations to go to a room on the 11th
floor of the hotel at a precisely ap-
pointed time.
My time was 3:30 p.m. I arrived
and opened the designated door.
The shadowy figure of a man was
rs o
ea-
bacon-lettuce-and-tomato sandwich.
It was then-presidential counselor graphics ghics showing warnings. The the nightly progress T of
f
Ed Meese, who was prepared to tell the freighter across the Atlantic
me, on the basis of no further at- demonstrated we had close satellite
tribution, how well Reagan had photography of the ship, and almost
done in the closed sessions of his certainly the ability to read its in-
first international summit. If I asked coming and outgoing radio trans-
Meese about Lebanon, or F-16 de- missions. It probably gave the So-
liveries to Israel, or about the times viets a broad hint that we had some-
Meese and I have spent together in body on the ground in the Soviet
Sacramento, he would answer with Union who was willing to risk his
a variation on the theme of how life to report on the specific loading
Reagan had wowed his allies at the of a specific
conference sessions, ship in a certain port.
The impression was given that
After 30 minutes of this, another the president was alert to a danger
mysteriously summoned journalist and he was prepared to do some-
appeared at the door and I was ush- thing about it-never mind that the
ered out so someone else could sit crates turned out to contain some-
in front of "the senior official," now thing else when they arrived.
finishing up his iced tea, to hear The standard leak technique in
how Reagan stunned the Western this administration is the institu-
leaders and convinced them totally tionalized group-leak known as the
that there is no relationship be- backgrounder. It sets the stage and
tween a high federal deficit and provides a mind-set where anony-
high interest rates. mous "senior officials" are regarded
Four years later, at another sum- as the most credible informants. It
mit in Bonn, I sat in another hotel is part of a kind of press-govern-
room listening to Treasury Secre- ment conspiracy: We, the press,
tary James Baker-identifiable only know that they, the government,
as a "senior administration offi- are handing out this information,
cial"-describe how Reagan has but we can't tell the poor saps who
always understood perfectly how a are the readers, because that would
large federal deficit tends to drive detract from the omniscient image
up interest rates, the
ov
g
ernment is trying to create
s for William Casey, it is par- for the president, not to mention
titularly disingenuous-a the omniscient image the press
word that editorial writers likes to create for itself.
use to mean hypocritical-for him If reporters do identify the -of-
to complain about leaks. The intel- ficial," they won't be invited to the
ligence community has provided in- next insider session and they will
side information to reporters when lose their reputations for depend-
it happened to demonstrate that ably transmitting endless fountains
Nicaragua is a clear and present of U.S. government-certified
danger to Harlingen, Tex., or any- leakery.
thing else that the president or his We not only accept this stuff, we
public relations people wanted de- fight to get it. Currently, there is
monstrated. kind of a nightly competition to see
I presume Casey does not plan to whether John McWethy of ABC or
prosecute the intelligence officials David Martin of CBS is going to
who somehow let out the word in come up with the best "source" sto-
November 1984 to CBS that a .So. ry. The_..fa that some of these
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/03/09: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100110037-9
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/03/09: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100110037-9
scoops turn out to be flat wrong or
so incomplete as to be misleading
does not detract from the excite-
ment of it all.
If truth is to be told, there is a
kind of titillation, a frimn of mys-
tery felt by the editors and the re-
porters when they impart informa-
tion from "a senior official" rather
than some bureaucrat whose mor-
tality is revealed along with his (or
her) name. In fact, it's generally felt
among reporters, readers and tele-
vision viewers that the really good
stuff comes from "officials" and
"sources" and not from real people
with names.
Every time a foreign leader
comes to the White House, an as-
sistant secretary of state is trotted
out to describe the Oval Office dis-
cussions. When it's a European
leader, for instance, the briefer is
usually Rozanne Ridgway, the as-
sistant secretary of state for Eu-
rope. The White House ground-
rules prohibit the feminine pronoun
in the second reference lest there
be some hint who the "official" is.
The scores of reporters in the
White House press room, including
those from Tass and New China
News Agency, solemnly nod and go
along with this concealment.
eaks, as Alexander Haig says
L in his book "Caveat," have be-
come "a way of governing .. .
the authentic voice of government."
Haig, who was tormented until his
untimely end by White House leak-
ers whom he called "guerrillas,"
himself used backgrounders-no
identification at all of the well-in-
formed person you had breakfast
with at the State Department-but
he was routinely outgunned by the
methodical leakists in the White
House.
This administration didn't invent
the technique but it has perfected
it. We seem to be caught in an in-
exorable descent in which every-
body-reporters, editors, readers
and viewers-is part of the conspir-
acy. Once, after attending a back-
grounder by Secretary of State Cy-
rus Vance, and concealing his iden-
tity in the text, I gave the story the
slug, or one-word working title, of
"Vance." One of my editors chided
me for my breach of security.
Casey and Reagan have legiti-
mate worries about leaks that un-
dermine U.S. national security and
are justifiably critical of reporters
who have a single-minded obsession
with the day's scoop, even at the
risk of endangering U.S. intelli-
gence methods and agents. But ad-
ministration officials should remem-
ber their part in making the insti-
tution of the leak as important as it
is.
Jim Anderson is State Department
reporter for United Press
International. He is writing a book
about government press relations,
titled "Hand in Glove, How the
Press Became an Arm of
Government. "
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/03/09: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100110037-9