Show TH Is E E K in assi awid 1000 reporters cover washington this week some soine random notes on reporting washington for more than newspapers with millions of readers in this country and abroad there are more than 1000 newspapermen regularly covering the rations capitol washington Is without doubt the most thoroughly and accurately reported oty city in the world it is one of the few capitals in the world that has a cimpl completely tely f free fee press A newsman can ask any question he likes even of the president and expect to get an answer sometimes the answer of col course Irge is that it in hi none of your business but that type of official Is rare and newsmen have developed ways of persuading them to be more cooperative era tive news always is a surplus comi kodity in washington some of it is important but much of it Is trivial trivlan A good newsman leams leArns to dial distinguish quickly betic n the wo wd the federal pe eral v il employs m v more jora publicity belty experts they write and print enough releases each day to fill two freight care can tako taki the agriculture decarti De parti ment for example the pub lucity employees are so busy publicizing the department that the releases each day would fill a good size truck government news newa releases supply copy for only a small part of the more than a million words a day sent out from washington in news stories and columns A good newsman goes searching for his facts i publicity men can be helpful but after all they work for the government and their job Is to get out stories favorable to their agency or boss and to prevent if they can unfavorable stories newsmen are interested in the facts not whether they are favorable or unfavorable this results in a constant battle be tween newsmen and some dome agencies cies and officials who resort to lo labeling beling legitimate news as secret or confidential this often gets to the point at 0 absurdity timid officials resort to such labels when they are in doubt just uitto to be on the safe side clde where there is lefiti le siti mate reason for secrecy puch uch as national security newsmen respect the label many of tho the best stories out of washington are news leaks someone inside an agency will whisper a story to a newsman because he lle like his boss and wants to get him into trouble or for some other reas on A good newsman checks such stories and it if they are true and are legitimate news lie he uses theba usually the the offended official starts tearing tho the place apart trying treinji td find out dut who leaked the atory star Y there life are two important rules no good newsman ever breaks never violate a confidence and always protect your source of jr information formation anyone who breaks those rules soon finds he has no news source and must re lyl entirely on government releases |