The new trend toward “secret” journalism disturbs me (listen to the June 15, 2008 NPR story on the subject). With a degree in journalism and more than 35 years of reporting, editing, and publishing, I see this concept as frightening. Not because I think journalists should be hampered in any way in what they do, but because if journalists (or bloggers or citizen journalists) begin to gather information surreptitiously, we may find that organizations, governments, and other groups begin to meet more frequently than they currently do in secret to avoid the possibility of someone attending on the sly.

Journalists are not spies. We are supposed to be neutral observers and as such have until recently enjoyed somewhat of a safe position (although various intelligence organizations from all countries have compromised journalists or used the profession as a cover for other activities.) This is the very reason it was prudently determined that letter carriers not be co-opted into reporting drug activities in neighborhoods, which would then have put all letter carriers at risk.

Announcing yourself as a member of the press in most cases is the ethical decision. There will always be exceptions for undercover investigations, when such an announcement would put an end to the story, or where there is a decision to report heinous activities that would otherwise be conducted out of the public eye. However, it seems to me that in most cases, journalists of all sorts should be honest and forthright about our presence at events when we are reporting for the record.

You can hear an excerpt from this post in the June 29 archives at NPR.