BY DAN
KENNEDY
Notes and observations on
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Tuesday, August 10, 2004
FREEDOM OF THE PRESS IS NOT JUST
FOR THE PRESS. The First Amendment belongs to everyone - not just
to those who carry a press card. If you were hauled before a grand
jury and ordered to reveal what someone had told you in confidence
about a crime that was being investigated, you would have to testify.
Or go to jail.
That's why Time magazine's
Matthew Cooper is behind
bars today in the ongoing
investigation into the Valerie Plame leak. [Correction: Cooper's jail stay is on hold pending appeal.] Plame, as you may recall,
was an undercover CIA operative until last July, when syndicated
columnist Robert Novak exposed her identity in the course of dumping
on her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, the protagonist of
that infamous mint-tea-sipping trip to Niger.
Patrick Fitzgerald, the special
prosecutor investigating who leaked Plame's name to Novak, apparently
believes that Cooper and NBC's Tim Russert have information that he
needs. Russert avoided
jail by providing
Fitzgerald with some information. Josh Marshall writes
that Cooper's behavior is more honorable than Russert's, but I think
that judgment is premature. We don't yet know what Russert did or
didn't say. For that matter, we may never know.
This case carries with it enormous
implications for freedom of the press, and it's just starting to
unfold. But unless you're prepared to argue for special privileges
for reporters that the rest of the public doesn't enjoy, you might
want to hesitate before expressing any outrage at Fitzgerald.
It's not that Cooper isn't doing
the right thing. He is. It's just that there may be no good
alternative.
posted at 11:35 AM |
3 comments
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3 Comments:
Exactly -- the crime is the disclosure. The case would be different if Cooper were being hauled in to testify about what someone other than the leaker told him in confidence.
Steve -- I removed your comment by accident. There was this little hyphen thingie, and I clicked on it to see what it would do. I found out -- it zotzed your post! Mucho apologies, and feel free to restore it if you like.
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MEDIA LOG ARCHIVES
Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
