On
background means, to me, that I can use information or a quote and
attribute, as accurately as possible without disclosing the exact
identity of the source. "A source with direct knowledge of James
Fallows' itinerary confirms that he went to China last year."
On-background information is useful for the reporter and the reader
because it allows the reporter to impart information but also try to make
note of the source's particular point of view or bias.
Deep background, to me,
has always meant that
information can be conveyed -- but sourcelessly, so I am asking the
reader to take it finally on my own authority. Example: if a senior
Democratic official had told me that, as I reported earlier, the
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee's IE team had just spent
$600,000 on an ad buy in Massachusetts, I could report that as fact
without sourcing it to anyone -- as long as I was confident it was
true. More precisely, as long as I am willing to have my own reputation
judged by whether it's true. (My source for that, incidentally, was
NOT a senior Democratic official.) For any matter of consequence,
deep background
information can't be stenographic. It's incumbent upon reporters to
check
it out thoroughly...to get second sources, to make sure that the stuff
is solid.
From
the perspective of a source, it allows them to impart information
without leaving any fingerprints. The journalist has to be aware of
this motivation and take it into account.
Off the record, to me,
means off the record. Obviously, telling ANYTHING to a reporter entails
the reality that the reporter's brain will record the information and
use it, either to build to something else, or to keep in mind when
figuring out what questions to ask.
My favorite off-the-record example to give is my learning, the DAY of the election in 2004,
that Elizabeth Edwards had received a positive cancer diagnosis. For a
variety of reasons, I agreed to keep this information off the record
until the next day. Off the record, in that instance, meant precisely
that. In addition to not writing or broadcasting the
information, for me it includes an understanding that I will not talk
to other people about it. Sometimes, off-the-record information is negotiated to include
an embargo, and sometimes it isn't.
Confusion sets in,
though, because some sources conflate "off the record" information with
"deep background" information. Sources assume that talking to a
reporter carries with it the implication that the reporter will use the
information somehow. But off-the-record information can include
information that really will never be published -- if, say, in the
course of reporting about the attack on the CIA base in Khost,
reporters learn the name of the chief of station in Afghanistan, and
the CIA makes a convincing case that the name of the woman would, upon
being published, jeopardize national security (and assuming reporters
agree and are willing to abide by this request), then that information
truly becomes off-the-record...segregated in one's mind from any
writing endeavor.