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Morning Call — Public and media need shield when feds go fishing (opinion)

Paul Carpenter
The Morning Call, Allentown, Pa.
April 6, 2008

Seventeen years ago, a Morning Call reporter covered criminal proceedings against a Perkasie man in a drug case.

Her routine journalistic duty turned into a battle that ended only a few months ag

Paul Carpenter
The Morning Call, Allentown, Pa.
April 6, 2008

Seventeen years ago, a Morning Call reporter covered criminal proceedings against a Perkasie man in a drug case.

Her routine journalistic duty turned into a battle that ended only a few months ago. A lawyer for the Perkasie man wanted to force the reporter to help him pursue a lawsuit against officials who broke the law in their zeal to prosecute.

She was subpoenaed in what a newspaper lawyer called a 'fishing expedition' to find out what she knew and how she came to know it, including unpublished material derived 'off the record.'

Such disclosures clash with journalistic principles. The newspaper lawyer also said the subpoena violated the First Amendment's free press provision. This time, principle and that provision prevailed.

Too often, the fishing expeditions have little to do with a quest for truth; they are to punish anyone who helps a newspaper inform the public about a public matter. Such tactics intensified after confidential sources helped expose lies revealed by the Pentagon Papers and crimes uncovered in the Watergate scandal.

In Pennsylvania, a 'Media Shield Law' gives journalists 'qualified privilege against compulsory disclosure of unpublished information,' a key element in beating the subpoena in the Perkasie man's case.

I have long relied on confidential sources, starting in the 1970s, when I had a full-time job writing about corruption and organized crime influence in Harrisburg. Helped by my nasty reputation for orneriness, sources knew I'd never betray a confidence -- Shield Law or no Shield Law.

More recently, some Allentown police officers felt they could tell me, in confidence, about the misbehavior of since-departed Police Chief Stephen Kuhn and some of his flunkies, despite Kuhn's open threats to destroy any cop who spilled the beans to any reporter.

Often, we could not give readers the full story without sources protected by vows of confidentiality. So most states have shield laws, but they do not apply to federal courts.

Nationally, there are two particularly noteworthy cases involving (federal) court demands that journalists betray principle to help someone find out who spilled the beans.

One reporter, Judith Miller, was used by the Bush administration to mislead the public about Iraq. She spent time in jail for contempt until Scooter Libby released her from her pledge of confidentiality.

In the other case, Toni Lacy, a reporter who covered the anthrax story a few years ago, faces personal ruin because of a federal judge's outrageous abuse of power.

U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton, seeking to force Lacy to betray sources, imposed fines of up to $5,000 a day. His tyranny was temporarily halted by an appeals court ruling, but the threat remains.

I am not an admirer of Miller and, as I revealed Friday, I am not an admirer of USA Today, Lacy's newspaper at the time of her anthrax stories. But the abuse of power used against those women and many other journalists is cause for great concern.

Ironically, I have opposed media shield laws on principle. I distrust any government edict that specifies who is a journalist with special rights and privileges, and who is not. That smacks of licensing.

Unfortunately, the behavior of the feds in recent years has made me see a federal shield law as the lesser of the evils.

Such a measure passed in the House, but it was blocked in the Senate by some Republicans, who fear a shield law will do to President Bush what the protection of confidential sources in the Watergate case did to President Nixon.

Emerging as a champion of the shield law is a Pennsylvania Republican, Sen. Arlen Specter, minority chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He is bucking the GOP's powerful lunatic fringe to push for action on the measure. His office told me there could be floor action as early as this month.

That brings me to another personal link to all this, apart from my role as a journalist.

A family member has an intriguing role in this drama, but I'm out of space. I'll tell you about it on Wednesday.

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