MMMM #382 -- Decisions Not To Cover

     Last week the Obama Administration invited a group of journalists to a meeting to discuss the Administration secretly going through reporter phone and email records, searching for the source of a leak involving covert operations.
     Time Magazine reports two major outlets (The NY Times and The Associated Press)  refused to attend because the meeting was to be considered "off the record".
    There have been times (when I was a News Director) when I've made similar decision about not covering stories. For example: when still cameras were allowed but video cameras were not.
   

      And I have been mightily tempted to ignore"news conferences" in which no questions are allowed (or at least they weren't answered). Hell, just sent out the news release.

•      The media doesn't cover bomb threats, in general, for fear of tempting copycats.

•      We don't generally report the identity of victims of sexual assault, although I've always thought that conflicts with our Prime Directive: presume innocence.

•      And we don't generally report suicides, out of respect for the survivors, though there are exceptions for prominent people and public methods.

         But the government probably knows all that. They have the phone records.

[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of www.timlennox.com]