On Monday, Reuters revealed exclusively that Congress is delaying a plan to send U.S. weapons to rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The story, by Senior National Security Correspondent Mark Hosenball and Correspondent Phil Stewart, reported that Senate and House intelligence committees have expressed reservations behind closed doors about the effort to support the insurgents because of fears that such deliveries will not be decisive and the arms might end up in the hands of Islamist militants. In a Reuters Best: Journalist Spotlight Q&A, Mark offers an inside look at how they scored the exclusive news.
Q. How did you get this exclusive?
A. This is one of those stories which was put together over a period of a couple weeks from a mosaic of tiny bits of information. They eventually assembled themselves into a picture of a policy debate which was highly-classified and which had taken place entirely behind closed doors. Stories about secret policies more often than not come from longer-term, painstaking inquiries rather than windfall dumps of secrets from ardent whistleblowers.
Q. What types of reporting/sourcing was involved?
A. The fact that I have been covering intelligence matters for years and understand the politics and mechanisms by which secret policies are formed and debated helped me know what to ask and who to ask. The sourcing of this particular story, perhaps not surprisingly, is totally confidential.
Q. What was the hardest part about reporting this story?
A. The most difficult part was trying to get people to comment for the record on a policy debate which is officially secret. In our first story there wasn’t much in the way of on-the-record comment, but we’re going to have more of that in a follow-up story I am working on now.
Q. What advantages does working at Reuters give you in working on a story like this?
A. The respect that sources attribute to Reuters and its history helps convince people that I am someone worth talking to and that I care – quite deeply – about getting the story right, but also giving all parties a fair say insofar as I can. The fact that Reuters has such a wide audience also ensures that my stories are read both by the people I am writing about and by a much larger audience.
To read the latest from Mark Hosenball, click here.
