Ego

There is a human characteristic that puts a person is a position of power when they have important information that their friends are not privy too. If you are the first to know that someone is getting a divorce or that someone has a serious illness or that someone just won a large prize, you are in the cat bird seat. As you call all your friends and hear the response they have to your news, you are for that moment in a superior position. Now imagine that when you have this news you get the accolades of the national press when you reveal your secret. This is why people close to power have the desire to speak off record to the press. They feel the power they have when they reveal secret conversations, especially any negative news. They become valuable sources and their egos are massaged carefully by the press people.