Felix Salmon Misses the Issue

The lesson Felix draws is that off-the-record briefings are fine and on-the-record briefings may not be.

The lesson I draw from the incident Felix Salmon is thinking about is that off-the-record briefings are fine--if the people the senior government officials are talking to are people who understand the substantive policy issues and are not playing gotcha. If the people the senior government officials are talking to are people who either do not understand the substantive policy issues or...