They're Throwing Journalists Into Jail Right Here In The USA

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But now similar abuses are about to unfold within the United States, part of an alarming new pattern of assault on American freedom of the press. In the last few months, three different U.S. federal judges, each appointed by President Ronald Reagan, have found a total of eight journalists in contempt of court for refusing to reveal confidential sources, and the first of them may go to prison before the year is out. Some of the rest may be in prison by spring.

The first reporter likely to go to jail is Jim Taricani, a television reporter for the NBC station in Providence. Taricani obtained and broadcast, completely legally, a videotape of a city official as he accepted an envelope full of cash.

U.S. District Judge Ernest Torres found Taricani in contempt for refusing to identify the person he got the videotape from, and the judge fined him $1,000 a day. That hasn't broken Taricani, so Torres has set a hearing for Nov. 18 to decide whether to squeeze him by throwing him in jail.

Then there's Patrick Fitzgerald, the overzealous special prosecutor who is the Inspector Javert of our age. Fitzgerald hasn't made any progress in punishing the White House officials believed to have leaked the identity of the CIA officer Valerie Plame to Robert Novak. But Fitzgerald seems determined to imprison two reporters who committed no crime, Judith Miller of The New York Times and Matthew Cooper of Time, because they won't blab about confidential sources.

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http://www.theday.com/eng/web/news/re.aspx?re=681a109c-3fb3-4a6e-a0b6-0401ff196f77&prnt=1

If for nothing else, she deserves an orange jumpsuit for her criminally negligent reporting which beat the drum loud and proud for Bush's high crime and misdemeanor "march to war."

what will you say?.
Rights are to be protected for all, blindly.
If Novak and Miller can be prosecuted while affording them their rights, by all means string 'em up. But there is a fundamental threat to everyone here.
I'm not sure what to make of this, but it is troubling.

...and why. Not that she should or shouldn't be singled out, and not that I don't stand by freedom of the press, etc. I simply weep no tears for her.

My point was that bigger issues are often lost amidst the noise of smaller ones.

n/t :)

We've been tossing journalists in jail for not revealing sources for years. And it's all perfectly legal per the Supreme Court case Branzburg v. Hayes. There's a summation of the findings here:

http://www.mobar.org/handbook/journalist.htm

Please continue discussion here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x84785