To the Editor:

“Rosenstein Raised Idea of Recording Talks With Trump” (front page, Sept. 22) amounts to glorified gossip that will accomplish nothing beyond fueling the right’s paranoia. It may well lead to the firing or resignation of Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, something that I believe will damage our democracy.

From what I have seen, Mr. Rosenstein has done an excellent job, remaining firm, professional and apolitical in an impossible situation. If he leaves, I wonder if the person who succeeds him will be able to resist the onslaught of unethical demands from President Trump and his congressional allies.

I suppose you would argue that your job is to print the news, whatever it is. However, thinking so narrowly is an abdication of your responsibility, and I’m not sure this was really news anyway. To ignore the consequences of your stories is not ethical and is no service to democracy. You have a profound duty to consider whether the news value is worth the damage the reporting will do. In this case, I do not believe it was.

Using solely anonymous sources — and they better have been some pretty amazing sources, given the strength of the denial — to tell us that a government employee is frustrated with his boss is hardly news. That there is chaos in the administration and the president is erratic is hardly news.