A Question Of Naming Names

There are at least six people in Washington who know the answer to the city's most politically charged mystery in years. And they're not talking.

Whether they should maintain their silence -- and whether they might be legally compelled to break it -- lies at the heart of a burgeoning debate about media ethics and the whispered transactions with government officials that shape the daily flow of news and opinion.

Columnist Robert Novak, who sparked a criminal investigation into which "two senior administration officials" told him that the wife of an outspoken White House critic was a CIA operative, isn't the only person who knows the identity of the leakers. Reporters for NBC, Time and Newsday, among others, had similar conversations with administration officials.

Among the questions swirling around the controversy is whether Justice Department investigators might seek to subpoena the journalists after former diplomat Joseph Wilson, who is outraged about the outing of his wife, provides their names, as he has promised to do.

As far as I can tell, there is nothing in the First Amendment which confers upon "journalists" a privilege of keeping secret the identity of their "sources." Certain courts have arbitrarily conferred this privilege, followed by "Shield Laws" enacted by most states.

Somehow, this extra-constitutional privilege has morphed into an imagined "privilege to commit crimes, with impunity/immunity."

By this, I mean that some "journalists" are breaking the same law they are accusing "the Bush administration" of breaking.

In this specific case, (as I am listening to the talk show twits railing about what a horrid crime "outing" a CIA drone has to be) if we presume an actual "leaker," (of The Plame Identity) there are also several self-proclaimed "leakees," who claim they were personally told about "The Plame Identity." Each and every one of those leakees, by hearing the alleged leak, had direct personal knowledge of a Federal felony. Since they did NOT immediately inform the appropriate authorities, it seems clear that they could be found guilty of the crime of "misprision of a felony."

Furthermore, EVERY "journalist," news director, editor, producer, etc. who has PUBLISHED The Plame Identity has committed the very same Crime which they themselves are hissing and moaning about. THEY have revealed the identity of a woman they claim to be a "deep cover agent."

As am matter of fact, so has the esteemed Joe Wilson: he has been all over the place, telling of this leak. This morning, I heard him claim that his wife was in terrible danger. He claimed that she is the number one target of the terrorists!?

I say, arrest all of the self-proclaimed Leakees, AND Joe Wilson, and throw them all in the same cell [Remember the last episode of Seinfeld?] and see how long it takes them to re-evaluate their sacred "Reporter's Privilege."

p.s. Below are a couple of links to information [from the reporter's point of view] about "privilege."

http://www.splc.org/legalresearch.asp?id=31

http://www.rcfp.org/privilege/index.html

There's A Better Way To Beat The Media Clymers (And You Don't Have To Skate)!

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