Media Shield Bill Would Exempt Security

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON - The sponsors of a bill to shield reporters from jail when they refuse to reveal their sources added an exception Monday that would allow federal courts to compel such disclosures if doing so would prevent harm to national security.

The bill, revised to address concerns by the Justice Department and House Republicans, would allow a federal court to force the disclosure of a confidential source if "disclosure of the identity of a source is necessary to prevent imminent and actual harm to the national security."

Rep. Mike Pence (news, bio, voting record), R-Ind., who is sponsoring the bill with Sen. Dick Lugar, R-Ind., said the concerns posed "legitimate questions" that were answered by the revision.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050718/ap_on_go_co/media_shield

[Im_Your_Huckleberry]

1. slippery slope.

[bluestateguy]

2. I wonder what the definition of national security will be

Protecting an ordinary criminal, or even a murderer or a child molester? There could be a lot of pressure to classify such sources as somehow necessary for national security.

[stepnw1f]

3. Just in Time Huh?

These bastards break laws then remake them to get off the hook. Hey Republicans? Go screw yourselves!

[Auntie Bush]

4. How are they going to MAKE someone tell their source? Torture them?

[merwin]

5. They will be declared enemy combatants, sent to Gitmo, and tortured.

[ConcernedCanuk]

6. Ummmm . . . You left out that favored "rendition" thingy . .

.
.
.

Where they send them to countries with unique "talents" in extracting confessions . .

I almost said "information" instead of confessions, because I wonder what an innocent person would eventually say when tortured every time they told the truth . . . . and reduced pain when they told the "investigators" what they wanted to hear.

What a luvly country the USA has become . . .

(sigh)