{"id":4064,"date":"2010-07-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1970-01-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=4064"},"modified":"2014-10-29T19:52:19","modified_gmt":"2014-10-30T02:52:19","slug":"off-the-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lesliedinaberg.com\/wordpress\/?p=4064","title":{"rendered":"Off the Record"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Image by Stuart Miles, freedigitalphotos.net<\/p><\/div>\n

“Abracadabra” is a magic word. So are “salagadoola mechicka boola bibbidi-bobbidi-boo.”<\/p>\n

Even “please,” “thank you” and “I’m sorry” have magical properties sometimes.<\/p>\n

However, “off the record” is not a magic enchantment spell with supernatural powers to change both the future and the past.<\/p>\n

I repeat: “off the record” is not a magic phrase.<\/p>\n

“Off the record” is a mutually agreed upon transaction, the terms of use of which should be discussed with a reporter before the person talking “off the record” actually discloses any information.<\/p>\n

I don’t know why this is so confusing for people, but obviously it is.<\/p>\n

If you really need to confide in someone, tell a priest, tell your doctor or tell your lawyer, but don’t tell a journalist\u2014unless you want him or her to do something about it. True confidentiality is what pets are for. If you must talk to someone about a private subject and you don’t want it repeated, tell it to your dog or cat. Those are the only beings that you can guarantee won’t share your confidences.<\/p>\n

When you say something to a journalist, think first about who it is that you’re talking to. Journalists are people who tell stuff to other people for a living. We love to tell people stuff. We get off on telling other people things they didn’t know before. Information is our currency, our life blood, our only substitute for barely making a living wage.<\/p>\n

Think before you talk and talk (about whether or not what you’re saying is on the record) before you really talk. Then talk to Gen. Stanley McChrystal<\/a> if you still don’t understand why this is important. I hear he’s got some time on his hands these days.<\/p>\n

This is not to say that there aren’t perfectly legitimate reasons for telling a journalist something “off the record.” We can and will keep a secret if we say we will. It goes back to that “mutually agreed upon” part of the equation I talked about earlier.<\/p>\n

If, for example, something really bad is going on but you don’t want to be fired-or killed-talking to a journalist “off the record” might be a good way to set the wheels in motion to do something about it. I know this, because I’ve seen it in a movie. For example, if you’re being chased by a black-ops, rogue faction of the government, give me a call.<\/p>\n

Sometimes there might be a need to provide background information or context for a story, stuff you don’t want to be quoted about, or even “double super secret background,” which is stuff you really, really, really don’t want to be quoted about. The old, “I could tell you but then I’d have to kill you” kind of information that many of us deal with on a day-to-day basis, at least in the movies.<\/p>\n

And let’s face it; some gossip is just too juicy to keep to yourself. But come to think of it, that’s probably what Twitter<\/a> is for. I haven’t quite figured that one out. But “off the record” is something I’m pretty clear about and you should be too.<\/p>\n

Just keep in mind that while the line between edit and advertising has become blurred in many publications-along with the line between bloggers and journalists, professionals and hobbyists, and fact and opinion-newspaperman H.L. Mencken defined news as “what somebody does not want to see in print. The rest is public relations.”<\/p>\n

Or, as Rolling Stone<\/em><\/a> writer Michael Hastings wrote, when he took to Twitter to defend himself against criticism of his recent cover story which resulted in the firing of Gen. McChrystal, “Hard not to respond to this without going back to an old saying. I’m paraphrasing: Reporting is what someone somewhere doesn’t want known. Everything else is advertising.”<\/p>\n

Share your journalistic pet peeves-on the record-with Leslie@LeslieDinaberg.com. For more columns visit www.LeslieDinaberg.com<\/a>.\u00a0Originally published in the\u00a0Santa Barbara Daily Sound\u00a0<\/a>on July 9, 2010.<\/span><\/h6>\n

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