Word: schorr
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...Schorr's final, and most serious, mistake was his initial attempt to hide his own identity as the person responsible for the report's release. Schorr said he intended to write an introduction and commentary to accompany the report, thinking that others in the media, particularly The New York Times, were also planning to release the document. When he realized that he possessed the only copy, he decided on anonymity to protect his source. "I should have perceived that to make an act of disclosure a covert act in itself was a very serious mistake," Schorr said...
Secrets, whether the government's or a reporter's, seldom remain secrets for very long. The morning after the report appeared in the Village Voice, the Washington Post broke a story identifying Schorr as the Voice's source. Within a week he acknowledged the Post's story and CBS suspended him from further duties until the completion of the investigation...
From that moment unti his appearance before the Ethics Committee in September, Schorr was in limbo. He became a cause celebre, a defender of free speech to some, a Benedict Arnold to others. He describes that period as "unreal." He said he could not understand what he "was doing on the other side of the microphone." After devoting an entire life to reporting, to asking the questions, now he had to answer them...
Like a heretic defending himself before the Inquisition, Schorr was summoned to testify before a hostile Congressional investigatory committee, armed with questions tailored to trap him into revealing his source. Schorr withstood the pressures of the committee inquiry, braving threats of prosecution for contempt. He told the committee...
...defender of both the reporter's right to report and the public's "right to know," Schorr emerged from the hearing room victorious. His own market value, which had plummeted to an unprecedented low in February 1976, soared once again. The CBS brass offered to take him back--but Schorr had had enough. Demoralized by the lack of support shown him during the controversy by the network and some of his colleagues, Schorr could not bring himself to return...