Directly out of Bush country Florida....

[whistle]

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Posted on Wed, Jul. 13, 2005
Press behind bars
Jailing of reporter has wide implications


Reporter Judith Miller sits in jail for refusing to reveal the identity of a confidential source to a federal prosecutor. That fact must not be overlooked in the growing controversy over who leaked the identity of a CIA undercover agent to the press two years ago. It represents a serious threat to one of the most fundamental principles for which this nation stands: freedom of the press.

Sadly, it has already shifted attention away from the assault on the First Amendment's protection of the press that Miller's arrest represents. As Miller declared at her contempt hearing, "If journalists cannot be trusted to guarantee confidentiality, then journalists cannot function and there cannot be a free press."

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Whatever happens to the leaker or White House credibility, this fact must remain paramount: A journalist is behind bars, not for writing the truth but simply for refusing to reveal what she knows about the truth. There is an Orwellian chill in that grim fact.


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The danger that this point will be lost in the controversy was heightened Monday with the linking of senior White House adviser Karl Rove to the leak. Newsweek magazine reports in its current edition that a reporter for Time magazine also threatened with jail for withholding sources, Matthew Cooper, wrote in an e-mail to his editors that Rove had discussed the CIA agent with him. That represented the first confirmation that the leak might have extended to the highest levels of the White House.
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<link> http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/opinion/12120172.htm

Wow.....let's look at that again: "A journalist is behind bars, not for writing the truth but simply for refusing to reveal what she knows about the truth. There is an Orwellian chill in that grim fact."

In a court of law swearing on the Bible to "...tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God" includes everything someone knows about the truth, no exceptions. Refusing to reveal what she knows about the truth is contempt of court and any person, regardless of their 1st amendment rights, when found in contempt of court by a judge, goes to jail. That's the law!

Now maybe republicans don't quite understand this, so letting one of their own chill in the clink for awhile may help get this concept across for them. This is not about freedom of the press, it's about whether or not a reporter using the principle of confidentiality is covering up for criminal or even treasonous acts that were committed.