Totenberg tests tenet of journalism with source friendships

By DAVID BAUDER
AP Media Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Journalists often have to be friendly to sources to get information. But what happens when they are friends? National Public Radio’s Nina Totenberg has tested those limits throughout a legendary career covering the Supreme Court. She details her close friendship with the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a new memoir, but that has caused some discomfort among people who have questioned whether her loyalties were really with her listeners. NPR has stood by its longtime reporter and says editorial safeguards are in place. It recalls a time in Washington when such relationships between leaders and journalists were more common.