Errors and Omissions

Technical error by prosecutors in BALCO leak case--oversight or yet another leak?

The New York Times today had an article on the government's attempt to force San Francisco Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams to reveal their sources for BALCO grand-jury testimony they published. The article leads off as follows:

About eight pages of a 51-page government brief filed in federal court in San Francisco on Wednesday were electronically blacked out to protect what prosecutors said was sensitive material concerning a grand jury's investigation into steroid use in baseball.

But the secret passages can be viewed by simply pasting the document into a word processing program. The passages open a window onto a particularly aggressive government leak investigation, one that seeks to force two San Francisco Chronicle reporters to reveal the identity of a confidential source. They also help explain why prosecutors are pursuing the matter so vigorously.

The Times credits the New York Sun with breaking the story. Later in the piece the government is all but accused of leaving the opening intentionally:

Eve Burton, vice president and general counsel of the Hearst Corporation, which owns The Chronicle, said that prosecutors may be guilty of the very thing they are investigating. "It is our hope," she said, "that the government did not leak the document."

newspapers, media, errors

posted by Unknown @ 6/22/2006 04:23:00 PM