Judge Orders Reporters to Reveal Sources

Judge Orders Reporters to Reveal Sources
4 News Organizations Told to Identify Officials Interviewed in Wen Ho Lee Reports
By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 15, 2003; Page A02


A federal judge has set the stage for an unusual clash over assertions by reporters for four news organizations that they need not disclose the names of their sources, a traditional journalistic practice that underpins much of news reporting in Washington.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson late last week ordered journalists at the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press and Cable News Network to reveal who in the government may have disclosed derogatory information to them about Wen Ho Lee, a former nuclear weapons scientist who was the chief suspect in an espionage case.

Lee has sued the government to recover damages for alleged harm to his reputation caused by leaks of confidential information from the government's espionage investigation. His lawyers have encountered what the judge described as "a pattern of denials, vague or evasive answers, and stonewalling" on the part of the government officials they questioned.

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"This is kind of bad news," said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Washington-based Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. She said it is highly unusual for a judge to order so many reporters at once to divulge their sources and almost unprecedented in a case in which no criminal actions are alleged.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26919-2003Oct14.html

I'm sure Novak is watching this.

OK, here is my question. If the courts start to order members of the press to reveal sources what kind of effect is this going to have on the stories they are willing to report? 20 years ago maybe they would have still reported the stories and accepted a contempt of court charge as the risk they take for doing what is right. However, as we have seen in the last two years, someone has apparently snuck in and done a collective vertebrectimy on nearly the entirety of the American Press Corps.

While I agree that there are instances where knowing their sources is vitally important to criminal cases, national security, et. al., I do think the greater implications need to be considered. If they are "afraid" to publish important news stories that "We The People" need to know about, like Watergate, then it will be much easier for the bastards to get away with even more.

... the Wen Ho Lee leaks have all the earmarks of being a smear rather than newsworthy information. Looks like 'journalists' better learn how to tell the difference.

They won't do as the judge orders, nor should they.

past leaks ....here we go again...lets get Martha Stewart instead of Ken Lay ......fuck me twice! :grr:

See http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=166330