Sometimes "Transparency" Can Be A Bit Too Revealing

While openness and interaction are becoming standard elements of news organizations across the spectrum, "transparency" has its downsides, too. That's something NBC News has recently learned in trying to provide exactly the type of service that many critics have called for from the MSM.

Here's the rough overview: NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell recently interviewed James Risen, The New York Times reporter who helped uncover the administration's use of the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on conversations between people inside the U.S. and abroad. That story set off a storm of debate over the legality of the program, one that was flamed even more when buzz that the government had listened in on a U.S. reporter was introduced.

In her interview, Mitchell asked Risen if he knew whether or not reporters had been spied on and singled out CNN's Christiane Amanpour. Risen said no. While the footage of that exchange never appeared on air, it was included when the network posted a full transcript of the interview online. Here's how Lisa Green, Senior Producer for Broadcast Standards at NBC explains the incident on the "Daily Nightly":

"Nightly News obviously did not report on this because it was an unsubstantiated tip, though we continued to follow other leads on the NSA story. Unfortunately, without Andrea's approval, the entire transcript was posted on the web, including the brief exchange about Ms. Amanpour. When questions started surfacing in the blogosphere, it became clear that the publication of the transcript had inadvertently called attention to an allegation that had not been verified. We quickly decided to edit out that portion of the Risen transcript while we continued to check out the story. It's no surprise that readers were curious if not suspicious about the whole thing.

It's important to point out that Andrea was doing exactly what good reporters do, namely, follow leads including those that go nowhere and then report only verified information. We never intended to share unsubstantiated material with the public.

As for the publication of her transcript, we've learned an important lesson. The Internet audience wants to know more than just the filtered facts. We, too, see the importance of giving additional information, longer interviews, and greater context than what we can fit in limited airtime. This incident shows that sometimes that goal collides with our professional responsibility to pursue the truth. We're not trying to hide anything; but when we keep hearsay off the air and off the web, we feel we are simply doing our jobs."