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« Weird Political Science | Main | Miers Roundup » October 26, 2005The Press's Superman ComplexJonah Goldberg's latest column does a good job of deconstructing some of the pitfalls in granting special exemptions to journalists from having to testify before courts and grand juries, an obligation which everyone else must obey. He writes: Other than the obvious problems - that the First Amendment is not a blanket protection to conceal crimes, that nowhere in case law or in the Constitution itself has such a right been established - there's a sticky public-policy problem. Who gets to be a journalist? That question is why federal shield laws are the camel's nose under the tent of journalism licenses. If everybody can be a journalist simply by pecking away at a keyboard, then tens of millions of bloggers, newsletter writers and coupon-clipper weekly editors are journalists. If that's the case, then such a sweeping right is unenforceable and dangerous. If, on the other hand, only some people get to be called "journalists," then we've got the makings of a trade guild here.Last Wednesday New York Times reporter Judith Miller and US Attorney Chuck Rosenberg offered differing takes on the need for federal legislation to protect confidentiality of journalists' sources during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Miller, who was jailed for 85 days after refusing to reveal a source for a grand jury investigating the leak of a CIA agent's identity, testified that the committee should move forward on legislation currently pending in the Senate and House that would offer journalists protection from subpoenas by federal law enforcement officials. AP has more. Posted by Joshua Claybourn at October 26, 2005 10:21 AM CommentsI don't know about sweeping exemptions, but if the press can be called to testify on just about any whim, more major scandals will go unreported because many people just won't talk unless they are guaranteed confidentiality. I'm not sure Watergate could have been fully reported unless the sources knew their identity would be kept secret. The Pentagon Papers, a major success in exposing the deceit and criminality of the Johnson and Nixon administrations with respect to Vietnam, might never have been printed without some protections for reporters or the media. As it is, it seems to me that the Bush administration is one of the very most secretive we've had in modern years, with the exception of Nixon. Posted by: Joel Thomas at October 27, 2005 05:46 PM | permalink Post a comment |
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