I don't really see the relevance, at least wrt journalism with high stakes like the national security beat: https://theintercept.com/2014/12/19/senior-cia-offi

I don't really see the relevance, at least wrt journalism with high stakes like the national security beat: https://theintercept.com/2014/12/19/senior-cia-officer-center-torture-scandals-alfreda-bikowsky/ https://theintercept.com/2014/12/19/senior-cia-officer-cente... How could that possibly have been published using the "pull" method? But most importantly, it seems like a red herring. Regardless of push or pull, the significant question for national security reporting is this: does the news gathering organization have enough money and prestige for a legal and PR team large enough to publish against the objections and pressures coming from the government? If the answer is yes, you've got yourself a functioning national security division. If the answer is no, you're that "knucklehead" just asking to be made an example of, and you (wisely) don't publish the name[1]. I'm sure a lot of other types of news require similarly strong teams to write meaningful news stories against the wishes of other large and powerful organizations. Edit: "knucklehead" quoting the ACLU lawyer's advice to that independent journalist. I personally admire his work on that story, and he's mentioned in the Intercept piece. :) [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeEB6F8fmbY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeEB6F8fmbY