Top columnist warns courts fostering "chilling" US media climate

[dArKeR]

Veteran New York Times columnist William Safire said he was afraid to rigorously condemn a "chilling" assault on journalism by the courts, fearing reprisals against a colleague jailed for contempt of court.

Safire told a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, probing a bill which would shield reporters who refuse to reveal their sources, that the threat to the media was a result of "unchecked abuse of prosecutorial discretion."

"I cannot blaze away at the escalating threats of a federal judiciary that is urgently in need of balancing guidance by elected representatives of the people," he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050720/ts_alt_afp/usjusticemedia_050720224632

This is what I heard Bill Clinton say once. I say the Repukes went after and got Skakel too. There was absolutely no evidence in the case. Same as Michael Jackson too. These prosecutors are trying kiss the ass of the GOP Crime Family in hopes of political appointments. It's called Racketeering.



PS. Is this the same Safire who consistantly writes the bias GOP ass licking columns?

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

1. Some dipsh*t from Time...

was on one of the cable news shows tonight, wringing his hands over the fact that the public no longer holds journalists in high regard. He tried to blame it on Jason Blair and Dan Rather. I'm sitting there thinking, "IT BECAUSE YOU'RE A PACK OF SNIVELING LAP DOGS, YOU LOUSY PIECE OF SH*T!"

And, yes, I was thinking in all caps. It's a gift.

[Ksec]

2. You nailed it. Bingo.

[Benhurst]

3. ...

:thumbsup:

[bunny planet]

8. Gee, whose fault is that poodles. Some of you grew a set finally last week

keep it up or become irrelevant. Access ,schmackcess, you never really had access, the only way to get the story is to dig and get back to real investigative journalism, make your bones that way or be pathetic little poodles forever.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

9. Damned Straight

I'm a recovering journalist. When I was just a young 'un, we prided ourselves on the people hated our guts. It was a badge of honor that you had to dig through the muck to get the story. These guys. I don't get it.

[mikita]

16. this is a serious thread...

but I gotta tell you -- I ENVY your ability to think in caps. That really made me laugh. Thanks.

[Cha]

25. Yes, it's quite a gift, Jeff has,

but I think I'm developing it, too :P

[FiveGoodMen]

28. "...and a curse."

[MisterP]

4. yes: he worked for Nancy Reagan (it's in the stars!)

[goforit]

5. What right does Saffire have to adress the Senate Judiciary committee?

Why can't we the people address this committe too?

Dam it!!...This is really pissing me off!!

The Press has too many powers and should not be excused when
they are actively participating in a crime!!

Time to throw the TEA overboard?....
Paul Revere, where the hell are ya.

[Lucille]

13. Sa fire as a "columnist" got away with fantasy, not reporting

Don't believe he every got around to eating the crow that he promised to consume should Whitewater not yield the indictments he always swore were just around the corner. The NYT ombud defended his numerous inaccuracies by stating that his column was for opinion, not fact. So I guess if Safire's opinion is that an alien is about to bear Bill Clinton's love child, we'll just have to accept it

He's not a reporter. He wishes he were relevant enough to face jail time. Still, it's funny that the guy giving testimony biggest claim to fame right now is that his esteemed work is the basis of Dave Barry's parody, "Dear Mr. Language Person."

[leesa]

6. THIS is te purpose of the War Princess being locked up...to make

journalists afraid to talk and to blame it on an out-of-control radical judiciary. She is playing her role well, isn't she? Too bad it's not working. The dam has broken and the media is FINALLY angry about the lies and abuse from the Bush Administration.

He's calling for a government crack-down on the judiciary for God's sake!

[Carolab]

7. This is such crap.

Them saying Judy is sitting in jail on some journalistic "principle" that protects "the public's right to know".

So, the public had a right to know Valerie Plame was a CIA operative? WTF?

[StrafingMoose]

24. Just wondering...

If this isn't just somekind of a part of the Patriot Act that couldn't have been passed before.

Rove voluntarily leaks the info knowing it will get public, it breaks out. Everyone's shocked that Rove commited this crime, the administration offers it's "solution" by banning "anonymous sources" from journalism in America.

Then all the journalists reporting on whistleblower cases (in the period where they start as "anonymous sources" before going public) would directly commit crimes.

Do I make sense?

[dbt]

10. Oh, PLEASE.

I watched, from the INSIDE, as the entire Media Borg rolled over for bu$hler, beginning in the summer of 2000. Boo fucking HOO, scribes. You took a frozen snake into your parlor, you nurtured it back to health and then IT BIT YOU.

You won't even ask it WHY, will you? That's because you already know the answer: "I'm a snake. That's what we DO."

:bringbacktheflipofficon!:

[sendero]

11. Let me add..

.... that I agree with every response in this thread.

WHAT JOURNALISM? We haven't had any journalism since 2000. "Journalists" totally capitulate and then they whine that nobody understands their plight.

Oh, we understand just fine. We understand that you could not be bothered to point out the numerous and glaring lies that led us into war.

We understand that you've been licking boots for 5 years and now you don't like the taste. You made your beds, now lie there. And trust me, if it weren't for the blogs and the net, this country would already be over, no thanks to you lowlifes.

Want respect? Do your fucking job. Think putting Miller in jail has a chilling effect? You were all silent when they RAILROADED Dan Rather, I didn't hear a peep out of any of you. So much for your chilling effect.

Really, cry me a river assholes. Nobody cares about what you call "journalism" any more, it is irrelevant.

[annabanana]

12. Safire.... huh

:nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity:

(He really SHOULD stick to the history of idioms, IMHO)

[sattahipdeep]

14. Is this now hitting home with Safire?

Does the problems need to touch him before he gives a right
response that would help protect our rights?

Fitz is better than Nixons thugs. He can now sweep everything
that has been going on under the rug.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8635385/

[OzarkDem]

21. Bush Tool

How else would he get to testify in a Senate hearing? He was sent their by his RNC masters to snivel and whine to protect Bush. The WH thought they could buy, manipulate and use the news media with impunity.

Giving reporters "protection" in these cases only completes the process of making the news media a wholly owned subsidiary of Bushco.

[sattahipdeep]

26. White House opposes shielding reporters

Senate panel weighs jailings over protected sources

Thursday, July 21, 2005

By Ann McFeatters, Post-Gazette National Bureau

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration, caught up in controversy over
whether news reporters should be jailed for refusing to identify confidential
sources, yesterday stated its firm opposition to a shield law affording reporters
partial immunity from federal judges' sentencings for such refusals.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05202/541163.stm


You Are a Suspect
by William Safire
:shrug:

http://www.commondreams.org/views02/1114-08.htm

http://truthout.com/docs_02/11.16F.safire.you.htm

[Supersedeas]

15. Safire wants a political check on prosecutorial discretion

[samsingh]

17. safire - journalism is dead

[FlyByNight]

18. "Chilling" assault on journalism by the courts?

Hey Bill, what about the lazy, bottom-line, corporate assault on "journalism"? The corporate media - your paper included - enabled that petty, dim, pseudo-emperor to have his war in the first place. Hell, one of your colleagues now sits in jail as a result of the regime's fever for war based on nothing but lies and false pretexts - facts and evidence be damned.

Go to Hell, Bill.

:rant:

[gratuitous]

19. The courts are chilling free speech?

Funny, I thought it was a corrupt administration that menacingly intoned that certain reporters' comments and writings "had been noted in" the White House and that warned that people should watch what they do and what they say after certain media folks and political opponents received mailings of deadly anthrax - a crime that remains unsolved to this day.

But now Safire explains that it's all the fault of our court system. Glory be!

[Julius Civitatus]

20. So Safire goes and attacks "lefty activist judges"???

Well, f*ck you, Safire, you old hack! Wake up and smell the fascism, asswipe! It's your boy Bush and his merry gang who are abusing the press like no other administration in the past. It's Rove and his minions who treat the media people like slabs of bad meat.

And after all the abuse, lies, misleading "exclusives," and outright censorship, Safire whores out for the home team and blames "activist judges." Go f*ck yourself!

[Mandate My Ass]

22. The only time repukes have problems with prosecutors

is when they or one of their own are the object of an investigation. I've never heard them complain about prosecutors when a minority or Dem is under investigation. They love prosecutors then. Even Ken Starr, when he was a judge, consistently voted against the Independent Prosecutor statute because he knew it would be used as a political weapon. Yet he was only too happy to run the dirtiest, most vicious and illegal investigation he possibly could. He then had the gall to suggest when he was through with Clinton's crotch that the statute should expire.

These big media outlets have huge legal departments staffed by highly paid attorneys and believe me, they know that Judy Miller is not protecting a source, but hiding a criminal. They know this and they still go around bleating that she's such a victim. Fitz has them all peeing in their collective pants because he's uncovering the crimes they helped hide.

Safire is a tool. And Judy Miller is sitting in jail because she's a tool, as well as an accomplice.

[Felix Mala]

23. Warn Them??!! It's part of their plan.

[0007]

27. Yes we must save Judith Miller at all cost while America sinks

deeper and deeper into fascism.

[Rex]

29. William Safire is a boring piece of dried up shit.

He's almost as boring as Novakula.