(1 of 3) I hate when journalists make up rules about how journalism works and claim—from a position of supposed authority—that everyone agrees with them. Here's what Brent Cunningham, former deputy editor of the Columbia Journalism Review, says about how "off the record" works:
(2 of 3) "The generally accepted rule is that off the record must be invoked in advance. So if, for example, George W. Bush says to you, 'Let’s go off the record here—I really did make up all that stuff about WMD in Iraq,' you can’t quote him on that."
Maggie Haberman disagrees.
Maggie Haberman disagrees.
(3 of 3) Maggie Haberman says that every journalist knows—except, apparently, the former deputy editor of journalism's top watchdog publication—that a reporter must *verbally agree* to former President George W. Bush speaking OTR before he is *allowed* to do so.
That is wrong.
That is wrong.
(PS) Understand that Maggie Haberman has almost certainly *never in her life* opened her mouth when a Trumpworld source feeding her lies has begun a sentence with "this is off the record." She accepts it. The idea that she must explicitly agree isn't in her professional gameplan.
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