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Leaked document puts Post ahead

By Mark Obbie

The New York Times' William Glaberson has ruled the Guantanamo-justice beat for quite some time. But today was an off day. He and the Washington Post's Peter Finn both write today about the resignation of a prosecutor in the detainee cases at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Both stories about Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld are datelined from Guantanamo. Both cover the essential facts: that Vandeveld objected to the government's tactic to withhold certain evidence from defense attorneys. But Finn's story has a significant advantage over Glaberson's. Glaberson's lede says the prosecutor quit over what was "described as a dispute over the ethical handling of a war crimes case here." He quotes a defense lawyer on the details, paraphrasing him that Vandeveld's resignation stemmed from "disputes with his superiors about whether to give him information that might help the defense," and goes into a bit more detail later in the story. He also writes:Or, Finn might add, they can be leaked if you have the right contacts. In his third graf, he whips out a direct quote from Vandeveld's filing, which includes a pithy putdown of the "slipshod, uncertain 'procedure' for affording defense counsel discovery." He does not allude to where he got the document. The substance of the two stories differs in only minor ways. But the quote in the Post's story -- and what it signifies about Finn's ability to tell the story from the source rather than from one step removed -- makes all the difference.

Full post as published by Lawbeat on September 25, 2008 (boomark / email).