Bureaucratic Objectives and Tactical Uses of the Press.

More news emanates from officials than from any other source. Most of it passes routinely through formal channels of "public information" in the government to reporters on newsbeats around Washington. Not all news gathering is routine, however. Some nonroutine news comes from officials who disclose a pertinent piece of information to the press on their own initiative and without specific authorization to do so. The rest reporters piece together by making their rounds, exchanging and cross-checking bits of information with their contacts in the government, and taking educated guesses. In these instances, too, it is officials who provide the information that makes the news. The contrast between the American and British press suggests an explanation. The volume of detailed information on the inner workings of the U.S. government in the press astonishes, and occasionally dismays, foreign observers. The reason for the difference is not so much legal sanction or reportorial aggressiveness as it is bureaucratic need. Getting things done in Washington requires greater use of the press than it does in London.