AFFLICTING THE COMFORTABLE: JOURNALISM AND POLITICS IN WEST VIRGINIA

11. Uncharted Territory

Chapter 11 UNCHARTED TERRITORY SINCE I SEEMED TO BE GETTING NOWHERE using standard reportorial techniques , I decided that the only way I might be able to pull together the Invest Right story was to work my way inside the defenses of those I was investigating . But this was like plunging into a deep forest where there were no roads or signposts. I increased my attendance at seminars and conferences frequented by the members ofthe Barron inner circle. I socialized with them, commiserated with them, listened to their yarns, and spun a few of my own. Much ofit was a waste of time, but I felt that I had to be on hand for the occasional slip of the tongue, or a disenchanted pol angry enough to vent his or her frustrations to me. lt was a difficult time for my family. I often arrived home after my daughter had gone to bed and was still asleep when she left for school in the morning . "Mommy," Margo asked one day at breakfast, "when are we going to see Daddy again?" Was this procedural journalism? Hardly. For the investigative writer there are few recognized ground rules. The right to publish information carries with it the right to gather information. And when officials try to suppress that information, a reporter will have to employ creative methods to bring it to public view. As long as he keeps faith with his newspaper's stated policy and adheres to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black's admonition to serve the governed, not the governors, the First Amendment privilege will not be dishonored. My unconventional methods did not worry Harry Hoffmann, a selfdescribed "dumb guy" who never attended college. Hoffman had come up 120 CHAPTER ELEVEN through the ranks, starting with the police beat in Wheeling where he covered , among other stories, the Big Bill Lias racketeering trial. He was wellacquainted with the seamier side of human nature, and he was as determined as I to break this particular story. But Chilton, a Yale graduate who moved directly into an executive position, was concerned. He was afraid that I might be compromised by my "insider" approach, and the newspaper as well as its reporter would be embarrassed if knowledge of it became public. Chilton's concern was not without foundation. Reporters with the best of intentions have been occasionally drawn into the web of illegality through their own indiscretion, sacrificing not only their story but their professional reputation and entire career. There was also the problem of confidentiality of sources. I had first run up against the judicial system as a young reporter in Beckley when I refused to reveal the identity of a news source. On that occasion , I had been able to protect my source with the help of a gutsy editor and the implied power of the newspaper's opinion page. But by the time I began probing the Invest Right matter, the laws had become more definitive. The u.s. Court ofAppeals for the Second Circuit (New York) had ruled in the case ofJudy Garland v. Marie Torre, and Torre, a Herald-Tribune reporter, had been sentenced to jail for refusing to reveal her news source. The unspoken but near-sacred pledge of the journalist to never reveal the identity of a source who wants to remain anonymous is the heart and soul of good journalism. Those willing to provide information are made aware of this fact whenever the reporter approaches them on sensitive matters. Indeed, the reporter is expected to choose imprisonment if necessary to protect this privilege . In journalism the reporter's right to preserve confidentiality ofsources is as sacrosanct as that of the priest in the confessional. Whenever such a right ceases to exist, the free flow of information begins to dry up, leaving the news media little more than an outlet for the dissemination of handouts and press releases. Without the ability to protect the news source, the reporter has an impossible task in trying to expose government corruption. The precedent set by the Garland v. Torre decision served as a warning and a constraint during most of my years at the Gazette. Another case in 1972, UNCHARTED TERRITORY 121 Bransburg v. Hayes, involving the Louisville Courier-Journal, went all the way to the u.s. Supreme Court, but the resulting decision only muddied the waters further. In a decision characterized as a 4lh to...