Quick before the election William Safire wrote a piece alleging that CBS had attempted to throw the election to Kerry by withholding the report of missing munitions at Al-Qaqaa.
Safire claimed this process is so widespread as to have its own term of journalist jargon:
Journalists call that hyping device a “keeper” - holding a story for the moment when it causes the most damage - which the victim cannot refute until after Election Day, by which time it’s too late.
This claim perplexed Jack Shafer. Even after many years reporting, no one had let him play this game. He wanted to know more. He investigated.
But only source Mr. Shafer could discover corroborating Mr. Safire’s claim was Mr. Safire himself. Mr. Shafer found this strange, but conclusive enough to make a snide comment and be done.
Now, new evidence has arisen. There appears to be and independent source. Mr. Shafer is back on the case.
His final discovery about this rampant practice:
…I’ve located only two journalists who believe in keepers, one who is about to turn 75 and one who died 30 years ago.
Case closed.
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