News companies pay up
The week's news at a glance.
Washington, D.C.
Ending a six-year fight, the U.S. government and five news organizations agreed last week to pay U.S. nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee more than $1.6 million to settle an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit. In 1999, Lee was fired from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico after several news outlets, citing anonymous sources, reported that he was suspected of spying for China. Never charged with espionage, Lee was held in solitary confinement for nine months; he was released in 2000 after pleading guilty to mishandling government computer files. Lee sued, demanding that the news organizations—ABC News, Associated Press, the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, and The Washington Post—identify the sources who cast suspicion on him. Faced with heavy sanctions if they didn’t comply, the news organizations opted to pay the settlement. “It was not a decision,” said ABC senior vice president Henry Hoberman, “that any of the journalists came to easily or happily.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
Unplugged: digital detox cabins offer an escape from the grid and the grind
The Week Recommends Tech-free retreats in the British countryside give guests a chance to switch off
By Kate Lucy, The Week UK Published
-
Mossad's history with explosive technology
The Explainer Infamous Israeli spy agency has not claimed responsibility for Hezbollah's exploding pagers but has 'decades-long' list of remote assassinations
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Is flexible working better for business?
Today's Big Question Labour wants to end 'culture of presenteeism' and make hybrid working a 'default right' for UK employees
By Richard Windsor, The Week UK Published