There are different kind of secrets.
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Hey, isn't that the job or reporters/
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No, a good reporter doesn't publish everything he knows.
A reporter that publishes the name of his sources that want to remain anonymous will lose his job about it.
There are three kind of knowledge that a reporter has:
1) Things he can publish completly
2) Things he can publish without identifing his source
3) Things he can't publish but can use to understand the context of the situation
A reporter who doesn't know the difference will soon find himself without any source.
There is something like loyality.
Let say a reporter talks with Bush. Bush tells him under 3) that he thinks Cheney screwed up project XY.
If the reporter would print that it would make a story because an administrition is supposed to be loyal to each other.
Secrets are useful to allow sharing of knowledge without breaching loyality.