Alleged Israel Leak a Burden for Rumsfeld
WASHINGTON - The FBI investigation into whether a Pentagon analyst passed classified information to Israel is yet another political weight on Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, still fending off criticism over the Iraq war and prisoner abuse.
It is not clear whether the investigation will result in charges of espionage at the Pentagon. At the least, the probe complicates Rumsfeld's position as congressional committees that oversee the Defense Department prepare for more hearings on the abuse scandal.
Rumsfeld has not commented publicly on the FBI's investigation. While the FBI has spent more than a year on the case, it only became public Friday.
Why in the world would they call something like this journalism? This isn't news copy, this is an opinion piece.
The headline and opening paragraphs claim that the investigation is putting political pressure on Donald Rumsfeld, but who is making that claim? There's no expert quoted and the article clearly states that Rumsfeld isn't talking to the media about it, so obviously the idea of political pressure comes from the author of the article. And the last time these journalists weren't supposed to be putting opinions into their articles.
Don't get me wrong, opinions do have their proper place in journalism. But that place is in opinion or editorial columns, not the news space.
Remember back in high school when your English teacher taught you about "who, what, when, where, why and how?" Those are supposed the be the elements of a news story. There is no "and what the author thinks of it" attached.
Journalists world-wide would do well to get back to the basics of news reporting.