As a reporter I always strive to be clear about what “off-the-record” means, because in Washington, people throw around the term and it has different meanings. Most of the time “off-the-record” means if a source gives me information, it means I can use it, but I just can’t name the person as my source. Since I cover lobbying, sources often like to dish about others, but only off-the-record. For other sources, the term means the information they are telling me is for background purposes to help me understand the story, but I can’t use the person’s quotes in the piece.
That’s why I found it interesting that Gen. McCrystal’s allies are saying in a front page story in the Washington Post that his and his staff’s incendiary comments about the Obama administration to a Rolling Stone reporter were off-the-record.
I don’t know what the truth is here, but a classic Washington tool is to try to destroy the character of the source of information, as a form of damage control. On the other hand, I often tell people who are working with reporters, that they have to be careful that the ground rules are clear about what off-the-record means. If you are going to go off-the-record, make sure that reporter is trustworthy.
I can’t believe that Gen. McChrystal is so unsophisticated that he didn’t know when he was on and off the record, but I also wonder if the reporter, Michael Hastings, might have felt he couldn’t resist putting some of the things McChrystal and his staff said around him on the record. I could imagine him thinking, “it’s just too juicy not to use.” I’ve been in that situation, where I have sensational info, but I came by it through an off the record conversation and I couldn’t use it. So could Hastings’ personal agenda have clouded his judgment? He did tell CNN’s Anderson Cooper that while he hadn’t intended to bring down McChrystal, he didn’t regret it.
Hastings told Cooper on June 23: “The most important thing about this story has been the fact that we now have a chance to discuss the Afghan policy that America is pursuing here. And in terms of on a personal level about how do I feel about how his career ended, I–I–you know, this is–war is very serious business. And you know, what is one career vs. one life? And lives are being lost on a daily basis.”
The Rolling Stone story was a fabulous read by the way. One thing that I noticed wasn’t talked about much in the press coverage of the story is the one person McChrystal seemed to respect in the administration was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
