"A sheriff's deputy in North Carolina posed as a Newsweek reporter to coax an anonymous source out of a local newspaper journalist. And it worked," reports Kathleen Cullinan of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
Thinking he was simply helping a fellow reporter from a larger news organization, a common favor performed by rural journalists, reporter Lindell Kay of The Daily News in Jacksonville gave the deputy the source's telephone number. Before doing that, Kay "called a source and told him about the request," the newspaper reported. "With the source's permission, Kay provided a phone number to the man he thought was a Newsweek reporter." Daily News Publisher Elliott Potter said Kay did not provide the source's name or any other identifying information.
The "favor" led to the arrest of Robert Sharpe, an intern for the district attorney's office, who is charged with embezzlement and larceny, "accused of offering to sell the undercover deputy confidential records from a 6,000-page file he'd been told to photocopy in the case of Cpl. Cesar Laurean. Laurean was tracked down to Mexico earlier this year and is charged with killing a pregnant Marine whose burned remains were found in North Carolina," Cullinan writes. "Sharpe has now identified himself to the media as a confidential source for The Daily News." (Read more)
Sharpe told Laura Vesco of WNCT, “I’m very disappointed with the Jacksonville Daily News. I’m supposed to be a confidential source. They screwed me over and offered no help or assistance afterwards. I put my trust in this organization.” The Onslow County Sheriff's Department "later asked Kay to reveal information about his sources, and he refused, citing North Carolina's 'shield law,' which gives news reporters the right to refuse to testify about news sources," Jennifer Hlad writes for The Daily News. The 19,700-circulation paper is one of six North Carolina dailies owned by Freedom Communications.
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