Confidentiality has become a weapon in the White House’s war on
the press, a war fought with the unwitting complicity of the
press itself. In this hard-hitting inside story, Norman
Pearlstine takes us behind the scenes of one of the most
controversial courtroom dramas of our time, and shows that the
conflict between reporters and their sources is of great
consequence for the press – and for the country as a whole. When
Pearlstine – as editor in chief of Time Inc. – agreed to give
prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald a reporter’s notes of a
conversation with a “confidential source,” he was vilified for
betraying the freedom of the press. But Pearlstine shows that
“Plamegate” was not the clear case it seemed to be. For a
generation, Watergate and the publication of the Pentagon Papers
have been the benchmark incidents of government malfeasance
exposed by a fearless press. As Pearlstine explains with great
clarity and brio, the press’s hunger for a new Watergate has
made reporters vulnerable to officials who use confid