Isaac Blake wrote:
 
>  In other words, you
> tell someone else who you feel you can trust, and then they give it to
someone
> else and...  As well, I'm sure Ron Seybold can attest the number of times he
> gets NDA information from an "informed source".
 
Gee Issac, I don't look *that* shady under this beard, do I?
 
<muttered while assembling a makeshift character defense>
 
Just to set the record straight...
 
Honest, I haven't knowingly used NDA information in a news report. People
tell me things, because I am someone they can trust. They trust me to get
the facts straight, and sometimes to keep their name out of a report. But
I doubt that anyone would believe that telling something to a reporter
won't land it in a newspaper. Unless they ask me to treat it as background
information, before they give me the inside scoop.
 
There are rules for all this, and they stand on ethics. If I use
information someone tells me, and I don't know it's NDA information, I'm
not responsible for the violation of the NDA. That's the responsibility of
the person who agreed to the NDA.
 
Reporters and editors now sign NDAs on occasion. When I have, I honor
mine. I wouldn't want HP or any other industry firm to think otherwise. In
my current field, I've got internal information about development cycles
and the like. No client ever knows anything they're not supposed to know
about another client. I run Seybold Media like a Switzerland of
information. Trust is a harder thing to regain than to maintain.
 
When I'm not party to an NDA, or it's not required, the information is
fair game -- to a point of ethics. If someone says 'I'll tell you this,
but it's off the record, and don't print it," I honor that request -- even
if it's not NDA information. And if they say, "I'll tell you this, but you
didn't hear it from me," well, that's another matter. I've got permission
from my source to forward their information, but it's devoid of
attribution. That means when somebody asks "Who says so?" I have to reply,
"I can't say."
 
> information from an "informed source".
 
When I was a cub reporter in Central Texas, I once tried to use a quote
about a daycare provider who was abusing kids. My source didn't want to be
named, because she still worked at the daycare center. I tried to
indentify my informant as "A source close to the daycare center." My
editor cackled with glee at the phrase. "A source close to the daycare
center -- that sounds like a storm sewer or something!"
 
--
Ron Seybold
Seybold Media
512-331-0075
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