Ripon College Days

Dear Mr. Russert,

I believe I speak for the entire Ripon College campus in saying that we are honored by your scheduled appearance at our upcoming Ethics of the Media conference. Your reputation as one of the most influential, honorable and able journalists working today is well-deserved, and it will be a pleasure to have you share your knowledge and insight with our campus community.

I also believe that your willingness to address our campus on ethical issues provides an opportunity- if not a responsibility- for you to set the record straight on your involvement in the Valerie Plame leak case. A grand jury investigation has resulted in an indictment of Bush administration official "Scooter" Libby based in part on your testimony regarding a phone conversation between the two of you. Yet you have been reticent throughout that time to share with your viewers what you know, or explain the reasons for your actions in relation to your coverage of and participation in the case. A week from now, you will stand before us as the keynote speaker, and thus a purported expert, on the topic of media ethics. What better time to finally justify the ethical choices you have made?

As I see it, there are two especially important areas in which the reasoning behind your decisions remains unexplained. The first is your refusal to testify before the grand jury, until being ordered to do so by a federal judge in 2004. According to recently released court documents, this reluctance continued even after Libby signed a waiver freeing you from any obligation to keep your conversations confidential, which you claimed was in order to prevent harm to your relationships with other sources. In most cases where journalists refuse to reveal information, the justification would be that sources couldn't trust them to keep their confidence in future situations. But how could that possibly apply when the source has voluntarily given permission for you to talk? Even the respected trade publication Editor & Publisher has suggested your lawyers actually resisted because your testimony might hurt Libby. Is that true? Why would you try and protect him? And if that is not true, how and why should this reasoning withstand scrutiny?

Second, and more significant, is that you covered the story for NBC for nearly two years without ever informing your viewers of your involvement in the case, much less the relevant knowledge you possessed. You have interviewed other individuals involved in the case and asked them to discuss their own roles in and knowledge regarding the case- yet continue to refuse to discuss your own knowledge or even acknowledging your involvement in return. You have instead continued to cover the case as a supposedly neutral, disinterested party- yet admitted you are "in the middle" of what you are reporting on. Why wouldn't the better solution be to refrain from reporting on the case or at least informing your viewers of that fact? Why should others involved in the case, even fellow journalists, not receive the same courtesy on your own show? And how is your silence reconcilable with the fundamental mission of the media- arguably the mission underlying your justification for protecting sources- to provide the information they know to the public?

This is not intended as an attack on your motives or actions. I have no reason to doubt that your intentions were good and each of your decisions ethically sound. But if you are to come before us and claim to speak with authority on media ethics, I hope you find it appropriate to explain your actions. Not just to secure that authority with the audience in front of you and the observers nationwide who have been asking similar questions, but also to provide insight into the undeniably difficult ethical dilemmas you have faced, issues which perfectly befit the questions asked and answers sought at this conference. As much as your involvement in this case has exposed you to such questions, it has also provided you unique insights into the case and the ethical issues surrounding it. You have so far- and for too long- kept them to yourself. I hope you see fit to share them with us.

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