But there the similarities end. Journalists file their reports for anybody in the world willing to part with the price of their product, while spies practice their art solely in service of their presidents and potentates. Contrast that to the world of espionage, with its vast array of space-age eavesdropping equipment and its slush funds for passing around bribes, buying information outright and setting up honey traps.
Great nations have legitimate national interests that warrant the use of secret services.
And the citizens of great nations like the United States have the constitutional right to a free press that serves the national interest by contributing to a well-informed electorate. That's why recent comments by John Deutch, the director of central intelligence , are so worrisome. In testimony before Congress, Deutch disclosed that the CIA retains the right to solicit U.S. journalists as spies and to give his own operatives forged press passes to pose as working journalists to conduct surreptitious investigations and undertake covert activities. Deutch is wrong and should immediately announce a blanket ban on using journalists as spies. Any blurring of that line by intelligence services jeopardizes the lives of real journalists and their ability to inform their readers and viewers.