POLITICO editor-in-chief John Harris will attend this week's private meeting with Attorney General Eric Holder, even as both The New York Times and the Associated Press announced Wednesday that they would boycott meeting because it is going to be conducted on an off-the-record basis.
"As editor in chief, I routinely have off-the-record conversations with people who have questions or grievances about our coverage or our newsgathering practices. I feel anyone--whether an official or ordinary reader--should be able to have an unguarded conversation with someone in a position of accountability for a news organization when there is good reason," Harris, who was invited to represent POLITICO at the meeting, said in an email.
"By the same token, I sometimes initiate such conversations when I have concerns about access or other matters that affect newsgathering," he wrote. "This meeting was at DoJ's initiative. Although the circumstances of this meeting have drawn wide notice, I do not see them as falling outside the usual practices I follow as editor."
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