CBS News knew a week before other journalists knew that WNBA player Brittney Griner was to be released from a Russian jail, but it held the scoop until she was safe.
We’ll leave to others the politics and concerns about trading a basketball player with two cannabis oil vape pens for a Russian weapons smuggler, but the decision to hold back on the reporting aligns properly with journalism ethics.
A December 9, 2022, Washington Post story said CBS confirmed the news on Dec. 2, but CBS held off reporting it after the White House said reporting it could jeopardize negotiations At least one other news organization held off, too, The Post said.
The decision makes sense in the context of the Society of Journalist’s code of ethics concerns about minimizing harm. That section of the code says journalists should “balance the need for information against potential harm or discomfort,” and to “show compassion for those who may be affected by news coverage.”
The code – designed to show the balancing act among competing values – begins with the “seek truth and report it” value, which is first for a reason. Part of that section reminds journalists to “be cautious when making promises, but keep the promises they make.”
CBS made the promise to hold back because the government persuaded the network that breaking the story could lead Russia to stop negotiating.
But not every government request to hold off on a story is a solid one. The Post story quotes former Post editor Len Downie Jr., who (briefly) waited before publishing some of its 2005 stories about secret CIA prisons. “We never did not run a story, but sometimes we waited until we completely understood the ramifications,” he said. “We did not want to do harm to national security. We did not want to do harm to individual lives. But if the government was embarrassed about something, and that’s why they didn’t want to run the story, it didn’t matter.”
The 2005 stories won a Pulitzer Prize for The Post’s Dana Priest. Holding back briefly on the Griner story won’t win anyone a prize, but doing the right thing rarely comes with a prize.