The Pike Papers

Although it will hardly take on Pentagon papers proportions, the case of the Pike papers started yet another flap over the handling of secret information by reporters. CBS Washington Correspondent Daniel Schorr finally admitted that he was the one who gave New York's weekly broadside, the Village Voice (circ. 152,000), a copy of Representative Otis Pike's House Intelligence Committee's report on CIA and FBI covert operations (see THE NATION). The House had voted not to release it, but, said Schorr, he acted on "an inescapable decision of journalistic conscience." Although the document contained nothing significant that had not already been leaked, he added: "As possibly the sole possessor of the document outside the Government, I could not be the one responsible for suppressing the report."

Schorr's admission was forthright, but it raised more questions than it answered. For one thing, how he originally acquired the Pike papers remained unknown at week's end and seemed certain to become the subject of a federal investigation.

Cover Blown. Even murkier was the relationship between Schorr and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, a Washington-based group that gives legal aid to journalists involved in first amendment-related disputes. Schorr approached the committee for help in getting the Pike papers published, and through the help of the committee was put in touch with a literary agent who explored various possibilities; the committee agreed to accept as a donation any proceeds from the sale of the report.

But the committee claims that the agreement covered only publication in book form and that when the report appeared in the Voice, their agreement--and its confidentiality--ceased. Schorr, on the other hand, accused the committee of blowing his cover--"I am fully aware," he said, "of the irony of my complaining about leaks"--and insisted that the committee had been involved in the negotiations with Voice Publisher Clay Felker.

"Baloney," said Robert Maynard, a trustee of the committee and a Washington Post editorial writer. "He's trying to make us a partner in his calumny." Another trustee, Jack Landon, backed up Maynard. In the meantime, it remained unclear whether or not Felker had actually promised to make a contribution either to Schorr or the committee.

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