COLUMN: Thomas Mitchell

     The scoop. The leak. The exclusive. These are all fine journalistic traditions dating to the colonial days, when broadsheet publishers sent out small boats to greet newly arriving ships so they could get the scoop on the cargo.
      Over the years there have been celebrated journalistic coups. The Pentagon Papers and Deep Throat of Watergate fame come immediately to mind.
      Here in Nevada the Review-Journal is proud of some of its coups: The Ron Lurie land deal. The photo of UNLV players in a hot tub with a convicted sports fixer. The Frank Hawkins for-profit golf tourney and topless underage dancer. The secret Supreme Court order in the Whitehead case. The political consultant's gypsum mine in the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.
      Recently ABC's "PrimeTime Live" scored by getting its hands on leaked copies of secret videotapes of a convicted slot cheat being interviewed by a prosecutor.
      For some bizarre reason, the Las Vegas Sun has decided to turn this "leak" into a cause celebre. The newspaper seems obsessed with who "leaked" those tapes to the network and keeps fishing for someone in authority to launch a probe to uncover the source. A couple of gullible Carson City legislators have been roped into calling for such a probe, though saner minds appear to be holding sway and resisting this futile endeavor.
      Lest you think I'm being too harsh about the direction the Sun is heading, here are a few headlines:
      "Probe of tape leak suggested."
      "Del Papa's tape controversy clouds her bid for governor."
      "Del Papa denies office leaked Harris tapes to ABC."
      "Del Papa doth protest too loudly in flap over gaming tapes."
      ABC is never going to give up its sources, and any probe would only result in smearing as suspects everyone who ever had access to the tapes.
      Let me assure you, dear reader, the news and editorial decisions and judgments at the Las Vegas Sun are entirely separate from the news and editorial departments of the Review-Journal and are just as big a mystery to us as they must be to you.
      The Sun is produced under a joint operating agreement with the Review-Journal, which handles all production functions except news and commentary. The two newsrooms are assiduously kept separate.
      But for any newspaper to champion the sleuthing out of another medium's source is the height, depth and breadth of hypocrisy.
      In that the Sun is consistent. When state Supreme Court Justices Thomas Steffen and Charles Springer were pressing for an investigation of who told the Review-Journal about the very existence of the secret Whitehead case, it was the Sun that editorially supported such a snitch hunt. I mean they came right out and called for the probe to continue.
      The Sun also supported a probe of the events surrounding UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian's resignation, which included "leaks" to the Review- Journal.
      Now how can these people ever, with a straight face or otherwise, assure confidentiality to a source? Would you trust them with your career?
      Where are these people at the Sun coming from? Government secrecy is anathema to begin with and anyone willing to risk their government pension in the pursuit of truth should be applauded, not have the hounds sicced upon them.
      When one of Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa's deputies made those videotapes of slot cheat and former Gaming Control Board employee Ronald Harris, there might have been some justification for temporarily keeping them confidential until the case had run its legal course, just for tactical reasons - and even those are debatable, I might add.
      But now?
      I've written Ms. Del Papa and control board Chairman Bill Bible asking that the tapes be made public, arguing there is no longer any justification for secrecy. Mr. Bible demurred and left the decision up to the attorney general, who said this past week she is reviewing the matter.
      Public release would make the matter about sources moot, which it probably should've been all along. The real public debate should be about the content of the tapes and not about who snitched.
      On the wall in my office is one of my favorite Jim Day cartoons. It shows two gavel-wielding kangaroos menacingly towering over a mouse hole. A pair of eyes in the hole is labeled "News Leak." And Jim's caption reads: "... Nevada Supreme Court Justices Steffen and Springer hold court."
      Hell hath no fury like that of a pettifogging bureaucrat caught with his dirty little secrets showing. And I guess you can now add to that list a few petulant pseudo-journalists with axes to grind and oxen to gore.
     
     Thomas Mitchell is editor of the Review-Journal. He writes an occasional column on the news and editorial functions of the paper. He may be reached at 383-0261 or Thomas_Mitchell@lvrj.com.