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Thank you, I believe Leibovich's response provides the relevant context though.

NYT links are all paywalled for me, but I can't envision any possible excuse for what he did. I understand that "access" is a tricky problem and involves some moral grey area, but sending articles ahead of time for revision and "vetoing", and asking for permission to use a quote... those both strike me as a clear failure in journalistic ethics.

So should journalists simply never agree to have conversations off the record?

I think there are big problems with the way access and coverage are mixed up together and traded on, but I'm pretty comfortable with a journalist agreeing not to publish remarks made during a conversation and then later asking to publish some of them.

as a clear failure in journalistic ethics

To quote Glenn "Instapundit" Reynolds, "Just think of the media as Democrat operatives with bylines, and it all makes sense."

Sean Hannity, Democrat operative.

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