Media outlets refuse off-the-record meeting with Holder

Attorney General Eric Holder (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

Several news organizations invited to meet this week with Attorney General Eric Holder to discuss the Justice Department's guidelines governing security leak investigations that involve reporters are refusing the invitation citing the meeting's off-the-record status.

A Justice Department official said on Wednesday that the meeting with select bureau chiefs will be off the record to "best facilitate the candid, free-flowing discussions we hope to have in order to bring about meaningful engagement."

But by Thursday afternoon, representatives from Reuters, CNN and Huffington Post had joined the Associated Press and The New York Times in deciding to boycott the meeting due to its off-the-record status.

Holder called the meetings this week as part of a department review directed by President Barack Obama after controversy over the secret seizure of Associated Press reporters' and editors' phone records and secret monitoring of Fox News reporter James Rosen.

"We would welcome the opportunity to hear the attorney general's explanation for the Department of Justice's handling of subpoenas to journalists, and his thoughts about improving the protections afforded to media organizations in responding to government investigations, but believe firmly that his comments should be for publication," Reuters spokesperson Barb Burg said on Thursday.

"CNN will decline the invitation for an off-the-record meeting," the cable news outlet noted in its coverage of the meeting on Thursday. "A CNN spokesperson says if the meeting with the attorney general is on the record, CNN would plan to participate."

Erin Madigan White, the AP's media relations manager, said in a widely circulated statement on Wednesday that "if it is not on the record, AP will not attend and instead will offer our views on how the regulations should be updated in an open letter."

"It isn't appropriate for us to attend an off-the-record meeting with the attorney general," New York Times Executive Editor Jill Abramson said in a statement.

So, who's going?

ABC News, a partner of Yahoo News, has confirmed its decision to send a representative but said it will "press for that conversation to be put on the record." Yahoo News was not invited to participate.

Representatives for the Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post have told news outlets they will attend.

And Politico is also rejecting the boycott. "As editor in chief, I routinely have off-the-record conversations with people who have questions or grievances about our coverage or our news gathering practices," John Harris wrote in an email. "I feel anyone?whether an official or ordinary reader?should be able to have an unguarded conversation with someone in a position of accountability for a news organization when there is good reason."

The Justice Department did not respond to Yahoo News' request for comment on Thursday on the boycott.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/select-media-outlets-turn-down-eric-holder-meeting-162920717.html

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