Earlier this month a story revealed the FBI had employed a ruse to catch a person threatening the mass murder of children. In an effort to track down a guy making bomb threats in the Seattle area, the FBI had pretended to be an AP reporter in order to win the trust of a suspect and bring an end to his campaign of terror. Given the sensitivity of the case—could you imagine the outrage if the FBI hadn't made every effort to catch this creep and a bomb had gone off in a school?—the FBI's use of every legal tool at their disposal to catch this creep seems totally reasonable.
Unless, of course, you're a journalist with an inflated sense of your own profession, and then it's the worstest thing ever. Needless to say, outrage ensued, editorials were penned, hands were wrung, cops were denounced, et cetera, et cetera.
Here are the facts of the case, as recounted by FBI head James Comey:
In 2007, to solve a series of bomb threats and cyberattacks directed at a Seattle-area high school, an F.B.I. agent communicated online with the anonymous suspect. Relying on an agency behavioral assessment that the anonymous suspect was a narcissist, the online undercover officer portrayed himself as an employee of The Associated Press, and asked if the suspect would be willing to review a draft article about the threats and attacks, to be sure that the anonymous suspect was portrayed fairly.
The suspect agreed and clicked on a link relating to the draft "story," which then deployed court-authorized tools to find him, and the case was solved. No actual story was published, and no one except the suspect interacted with the undercover "A.P." employee or saw the fake draft story. Only the suspect was fooled, and it led to his arrest and the end of a frightening period for a high school.
Journos, let's be totally honest with ourselves here: No one was hurt except for the crook who got caught. Criminals might think twice before agreeing to an interview with a news outlet—but should the press really be serving as a mouthpiece for those levying threats to use high explosives in high schools? The public's trust in the AP or the Seattle Times wasn't violated because the fake story was never made public. Indeed, the AP and the Seattle Times and every other journalist decrying Comey's actions are probably doing more to damage their standing with the public by demonstrating how remarkably butthurt they are over a criminal getting caught. I can't imagine we'd see the same level of outrage if the FBI had impersonated, say, a car salesman or a banker. Newswriting is just a profession. It's not a priesthood.
So maybe cool it with the whinging, mmkay?