Man the battle stations. A frontal attack on the press is underway

Yes Weekly ^ | 7/05 | Jordan Green

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

The jailing of New York Times reporter Judith Miller on July 6 for refusing to reveal anonymous sources to a Bush administration special prosecutor is the latest ricochet of the political conniving and bullying that thrust the country into a war and a costly occupation in Iraq.

A federal appeals court has ruled that Miller and Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper are obligated to testify to a grand jury about conversations they had with anonymous sources. Shielding the confidentiality of journalistic sources is a time-honored practice, held in the same regard — at least until now — as confidentiality between psychiatrists and patients, lawyers and clients, and priests and confessors. More so than other professions, the privileged relationship between journalist and source is critical to the functioning of democracy in that it allows whistleblowers to come forward and expose government wrongdoing without fear of retaliation.

Miller is in jail because the Supreme Court declined to take the case and thus clarify once and for all what protections journalists and their confidential sources should enjoy. Cooper decided to testify just before surrendering to the authorities after disclosing that his source — reputed in several media reports to be White House Senior Advisor Karl Rove — gave him permission to disclose his identity.

We are headed down a dangerous road now, with an administration determined to humiliate the press in its traditional role as a check on governmental abuse, a Supreme Court that can’t be bothered with protection of the First Amendment and a public that seems more preoccupied with reality TV than what government does in its name.

To appreciate the absurdity of special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s hounding of Miller and Cooper, it’s instructive to look back at how the two became ensnared in this net in the first place. The prosecution, in fact, was launched after conservative columnist Robert Novak, whose punditry tends to lean favorably towards the administration, wrote a column exposing Valerie Plame as a CIA agent. Novak’s column appeared shortly after Plame’s husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV, published an opinion piece critical of Bush’s Iraq policy. Whoever outted Plame to Novak likely broke the law, which makes it a crime to expose a CIA agent, thus endangering her life and ending her career as a spy.

Novak has refused to discuss the Justice federal investigation, and is widely believed to be cooperating with the prosecution. It is difficult to believe the federal prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, and senior Bush administration officials don’t already know the identity of the White House staffer who leaked Plame’s identity to Novak.

It is the height of absurdity that Novak, who colluded in endangering Plame’s life, is quietly riding out the storm of controversy while a reporter who may have talked to sources about Plame’s identity but didn’t write a story about it, is sitting behind bars.

Senior NPR News analyst Daniel Schorr, who covered the Watergate scandal as a correspondent for CBS News, said it best: “Today’s decision to jail Judith Miller… can be regarded as a frontal attack on the press.”

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

"Fire Rove"

[Brilliant]

Miller is in jail because she doesn't want to admit that she had no source and simply made up the story from whole cloth, ala Jayson Blair.

Either that, or Jayson Blair was her source.

[dts32041]

Your rights no more scared than small property owner rights, or gun owner rights, welcome to the real americka. Be careful what you ask for.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

More so than other professions, the privileged relationship between journalist and source is critical to the functioning of democracy in that it allows whistleblowers to come forward and expose government wrongdoing without fear of retaliation.

Too bad, the press has abused their privileges too many times. They hide behind this privilege in order to spread outright lies and to shield criminals and terrorists.

[woodb01]

I frankly do not believe Rove is behind this, CONTRARY to the DEMOCRAT PUNDITS who call themselves news reporters, some information HAS come out that indicates that Rove HAS cooperated, and that he also came right out and ADMITTED that he had conversations with the press but did not name any CIA related source.

For the press to protect a REPUBLICAN in any REPUBLICAN administration is like saying that Planned Parenthood protects babies by killing them. 

Who knows, I could end up being wrong, but I don't think so.

IF ROVE IS GUILTY, HE SHOULD FRY!  Fact is, revealing SENSITIVE MILITARY / CIA / CLASSIFIED INFORMATION IS A FELONY!  What the Fruit Loops in the United Nations Socialist Press Corps (i.e. democrats) would like us to believe is that the PRESS CAN COMMIT FELONIES WITHOUT PUNISHMENT!

There has NEVER been any form of immunity for the press to commit felonies.

ONLY JUDGES, LAWYERS, AND CONGRESS HAVE IMMUNITY TO COMMIT FELONIES!

They call it "Judicial immunity"...

[PogySailor]

MSM in 2003 = " We DEMAND an independent investigator look into this leak. "

MSM in 2005 = " How dare the investigator question journalist to find out who leaked!"

Be careful what you ask for, you might get it.

[Dilbert56]

Well that's a hysterical presentation on one side of the issue. However:

Medical professionals can't use confidentiality to be complicit in a crime

Anonymous sources are, at best, a mixed blessing as a check on the government. They are also used by people in government. They allow people to make unsubstantiated allegations with no accountability. Thus, they can promulgate lies as easily as the truth.

[sydbas]

The prosecution, in fact, was launched after conservative columnist Robert Novak, whose punditry tends to lean favorably towards the administration, wrote a column exposing Valerie Plame as a CIA agent. Novak’s column appeared shortly after Plame’s husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV, published an opinion piece critical of Bush’s Iraq policy.

Boo hoo hoo! My goodness what a whiny little article this is. Notice how it is 'conservative' and 'favorable' to the administration Robert Novak? No mention that Joe Wilson lied all over the place when he came back from Niger and no mention that it was the democrats that insisted on the special prosecutor in the first place. Is this the beginning of trashing the special prosecutor like they did Ken Starr? The big unaswered question is who is Judith Miller and the New York Times protecting?

[ex-snook]

Presidents are not above the law. Reporters are not above the law. Covering up a crime is against the law. Jail them.

[Dilbert56]

ONLY JUDGES, LAWYERS, AND CONGRESS HAVE IMMUNITY TO COMMIT FELONIES! Not any longer. Thanks the the new, expanded "eminent domain" a town or city can steal your property.

[yobid]

She's in jail, Martha is in cuffs and Sandy Berger walks.

Meanwhile, sex offenders are released on $1500 bail to rape and kill children again.

Turn over you property, we want it for development and tax $$.

We are truly f***ed.

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

NYT refuses to reveal it.

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

One must realize 2003 was prior to the election. If the liberals felt they had anything of substance, why wouldn't they would have used it then?

[Mr. Jeeves]

So the New York Times would let Judith Miller go to jail to protect Karl Rove...instead of running a front page article on Day One telling the world that Rove talked at Bush's behest.

OK... ;)

[Experiment 6-2-6]

is the latest ricochet of the political conniving and bullying that thrust the country into a war and a costly occupation in Iraq.

Hm. Ricochet? Conniving? Bullying? Thrust? Costly?

Do you think it would matter much if it was an inexpensive occupation? Which, somehow, might JUSTIFY the war for oil. Thereby making the occupation pay for itself and thus be considered less conniving?

[durasell]

What story? I don't think she ever wrote it, did she?

[kittymyrib]

Because Plame had not been overseas in nine years, and went to work in an administrative office of the CIA, all this is moot. She is not considered covert according to the law. Because she is a show horse, her past as an agent was known all over DC, making this a laughable farce. This is a transparent ploy to try to get the President to fire Rove, which would be insane on his part. You should listen to Rush. He explained the laws governing the protection of CIA agents on today's show.

[stylin19a]

Novak, who colluded in endangering Plame's life,...

words fail me...

[Triple]

Miller's source must not be Rove; he has admitted where he was involved. Miller has another source that she is protecting.

[prion]

Shielding the confidentiality of journalistic sources is a time-honored practice, held in the same regard -- at least until now -- as confidentiality between psychiatrists and patients, lawyers and clients, and priests and confessors.

A matter of tradition rather than law. Obviously, "freedom of the press" isn't freedom for members of the press to do anything they please.

If I were in their position, and I had given an anonymous source my word, I would consider my promise more binding than a judge's order. But I would expect to go to jail for it.