Sheila S. Coronel, the dean of academic affairs at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, writes for Columbia Journalism Review about how a recent Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into a leak could have a harmful affect on future business journalism.
Coronel writes, “It must have been unnerving for the SEC staff to be asked exactly what they had told Lynch, to provide detailed information about their conversations and email exchanges with her and whether they had given her any documents. The investigators’ interview with Tyler Gellasch, then the legal counsel of one of the SEC commissioners, provides a particularly unsettling example of overzealous interrogation.
“It sends a clear warning to any government employee who speaks to a journalist. The message is loud and clear: Shut up.
“Probers grilled Gellasch about the questions Lynch had asked him and what his responses were. Gellasch, who has since resigned and joined the staff of the Senate subcommittee on investigations, told them he had the impression that she already knew about the split vote and that, while he didn’t intend to do so, he may have unwittingly confirmed that fact. A conservative news site reported last week week that Gellasch’s departure from the SEC may have been prompted by the investigation.
“The SEC doesn’t seem to have a full appreciation of what it is journalists do. Reporters piece together information from interviews like the one described above. They leverage information from one source to get additional information from another. These are time-honored newsgathering practices. This is our stock in trade: We extract and piece together bits of information from disparate and multiple sources.
“And the public ultimately benefits, resulting in better and more informed insights into the workings of government.
“Leak investigations threaten to put a stop to all that.”
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