We just watch "Nothing But The Truth" (based very roughly on Plame case) .... should reporters .....

[Stinky The Clown]

.... be allowed to protect their sources even if the source commits a crime in just the simple fact ofdivulging the information to the reporter?

The whole idea in the movie is that the reporter refuses to give up the source who tells her that a woman she knows in the most tangential way is a CIA NOC.

As we were watching the movie, we disagreed. One of us thinks the reporter should give up the source in a matter of national security. One of us thinks nothing trumps the First Amendment.

To bring this to real terms, if Novak had refused to give up his source, should he have been jailed indefinitely for contempt?

What do you think?

[MadMaddie]

1. I think that Novak should have been jailed for treason.

If the country were at a time of peace then maybe it wouldn't have been so critical.

This country was at war. What he did was single handedly cause irreprepable damage to sources that Valerie Plame had spent years cultivating. Many people in that communication network that Valerie created/helped create died.

Novak is responsible for many deaths.

[Ardent15]

2. +1

[hulka38]

5. Weren't Cheney and Libby the ones responsible for exposing Plame's network?

If Novak hadn't been the messenger, Cheney would have found other conduits to out Plame.

[Stinky The Clown]

15. In the OP, I am the one who came down on the side of the First Amendment

Even a slimeball like Novak needs to be protected.

I also am of the mind that the First Amendment does NOT apply to corporations, a la the recent Supreme's decision.

[hulka38]

3. I believe that it's vital our system that journalists have the absolute trust of their sources

under all circumstances. I think the biggest problem with the Plame case was that Fitzgerald was unwilling or unable to go after the main perpetrator of the crime, Cheney. I wonder about that because I think Fitz is a pretty tough guy and it seems like the case was there but that he balked. Does anybody else see it that way? Could any prosecutor with a strong case have exposed the crime and convicted a VP like Cheney?
Sorry Stinky if my post takes this thread down a tangent.

[MUAD_DIB]

6. Sure. Why not? They investigated the Clinton's over Whitewater and found nothing.

So the hack, Kenneth Star, had to deliver for the GOP and investigated until something came up. A blowjob.


I don't believe that it would have been very *hard to investigate/indict Cheney.


*Just use the same tactics that were used during Whitewater and investigate everything.

[hulka38]

9. Once they had the dress in their possession with Bill's DNA all over it without him knowing it,

all they had to do was catch Bill lying about it to a Grand Jury and it was done. This case was much more complicated but I think Fitzgerald was right there and backed off.

[MUAD_DIB]

12. They were investigating anything.

Would you or I hold up to the same kind of inquiry?

[hulka38]

14. You compared Clinton's case with the Plame case and I'm saying that the

comparison doesn't work too well. Would I hold up? Probably not but that's beside the point.

[Stinky The Clown]

17. And Fitz was the right man for the job .... a maleable wuss who does what he's told.

[Stinky The Clown]

16. Not a tangent, really. I agree and go further.

Fitz was either a wuss or a tool.

[MUAD_DIB]

4. I believe that it is treasonous to give information

to a reporter/indivdual that would potentially harm an active CIA agent, American citizen or politician for which the only purpose would be to out them.

There is a difference if a crime is being committed by a CIA agent, American citizen or politician and a reporter/individual is given information and then calls attention to it.

One is a crime. The other is responding to and exposing a crime.


Reporters are not above the law. Nobody is. Novak should have been jailed.

[hulka38]

7. "I believe that it is treasonous to give information

to a reporter/indivdual that would potentially harm an active CIA agent, American citizen or politician for which the only purpose would be to out them." - that would be Cheney/Libby.

[MUAD_DIB]

11. Yep.

They should have been dancing in the breeze for it.

[Stinky The Clown]

18. It doesn't matter if you thin it is treason or you don't. The law very explicitly *makes* it a crime

Scooter and The Dick were the criminals in telling a reporter. The reporter reporting it is not (in my view) a criminal

[Cetacea]

8. Related:Plame movie will feature Naomi Watts and Sean Penn

As Valerie Plame and Joseph Wilson. I'm fairly certain it wrapped months ago but there is a lot of secrecy around it. I don't know what is going on with it's release.

[hulka38]

10. Thanks

[VPStoltz]

13. If a vice president is allowed to hold secret meetings in which he divied up Iraq

to the big oil companies and we can't know whom he talked to, yes, journalists should be allowed to keep their sources anonymous.