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New York Times — The Right to Know
- By: ASNE staff
- On: 07/18/2008 12:40:01
- In: Shield law editorials
The New York Times
July 17, 2008
In the face of near hysterical opposition from the Bush administration, the Senate Democratic leadership intends to take up a proposed shield law to provide journalists with limited protection against being compelled to reveal confidential
The New York Times
July 17, 2008
In the face of near hysterical opposition from the Bush administration, the Senate Democratic leadership intends to take up a proposed shield law to provide journalists with limited protection against being compelled to reveal confidential sources in federal court. A similar measure won House approval last October in a bipartisan 398-to-21 landslide. But the White House, as ever, is playing the fear card, orchestrating a barrage of warnings that the law would “wreak havoc” on national security and “completely eviscerate” the ability to investigate terrorism.
Such hype and manipulation is predictable from an administration so obsessed with concealing its own abuses. The Senate must not be cowed. Only through robust reporting has the nation learned the hard lessons of President Bush’s illegal programs to eavesdrop on Americans and run torture prisons abroad.
Representative Mike Pence of Indiana, a Republican conservative, punctured the White House alarums with a blunt warning: “The only check on government power in real time is a free and independent press.” The Senate should show the same good sense and the same veto-proof resolve.
The bill has ample protection for law enforcement and national security while making sure journalists are not hounded into jail for protecting sources who point to government law-breaking and corruption.
The measure has been endorsed by the attorneys general of most of the 49 states that already extend qualified shield protections to journalists. Senators John McCain and Barack Obama have endorsed the bill. In the coming Senate debate, the two presidential contenders should lead the way in reassuring the nation that the next government will respect the value of openness.