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The news media of my native Sweden are currently up in arms over the Prime Minister's top aide Ulrica Schenström being seen drinking (a lot, it is alleged) and more together with a top political journalist at TV channel TV4 - see coverage in English here. First, the main issue was whether it was appropriate for journalists to 'fraternize with the enemy' in this fashion, but when it was revealed that Schenström was one of many people in the government 'on call' on the night in question, and that one of her duties while on call would be to play a central role in the governement's response to a national emergency, most of the media ire was directed towards her, and a few days ago she resigned. The journalist, Anders Pihlblad, has not resigned but has taken an indefinite leave of absence. Both Schenström and Pihlblad are currently under criminal investigation for bribery. This brief summary may not do the whole affair justice - if you can read Swedish, you can read more here, here and here. An in case you can't read Swedish, you can find English-language media comments on the affair here and here (they are both largely based on the International Herald Tribune item linked to above, though). I think the most interesting and revealing comments came at the beginning of the affair, when the issue was whether this was an example of sources and journalists being too close. In an Aftonbladet article from Oct 24, Anne Lagrecrantz, editor-in-chief of TV4 Nyheterna (and Anders Pihlblad's boss) is quoted as saying: "We think it is creepy that journalists cover other journalists like this". And in a comment piece in Svenska Dagbladet today, political PR consultant Harald Ullman calls the whole affair ridiculous and states that journalists and politicians drink together all the time - the big difference this time being that it got covered by another news organization. Journalists and politicians do drink and eat together all the time - not only in Sweden but everywhere. Sometimes they even get drunk together. My favourite journalist Hunter S Thompson memorably describes this joint drinking culture in his book Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 - Thompson never was a paragon of truth, but what is striking about many of his accounts of journo-politician drinking sessions in this book is how everyday they are - you don't get the sense that Thompson is describing something exceptional (in contrast to his hilarious and likely half-fabricated stories of rampant drug use among politicians and thei campaign staff, for example). The relationship between journalists and their sources (particularly political sources) are often described as antagonistic (not least by journalists), but in truth it always has a large element of negotiation to it - after all, these people have to work with each other day in, day out. But the everyday give-and-take going on between journalists and politicians is not public knowledge, I think, as journalism is in fact a very non-transparent institution (clearly expressed in the Lagercrantz quote above, expressing unease that a journalist would do this (i.e. cover the story) to another journalist). Is it crossing the line to have a one-on-one drinking session with an important source? If it is, then it is clearly a question of degrees rather than absolutes. Pihlbland's and Schenström's real crime was, as it always is, that they got caught.