Shield Law Folo

This gets to the point I make below--protecting whistle-blowers is one thing when contemplating a shield law, though those laws are usually designed for journalists. It's another to hide behind the leakers while anonymously damaging people, which is Valerie Plame's point. And is the fourth graf snarky or what?


Plame Book Criticizes Bush, Journalists
By MATT APUZZO
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former CIA operative Valerie Plame, whose 2003 outing touched off a White House leak scandal, said journalists hid behind the First Amendment after allowing themselves to be exploited by the Bush administration.

Plame writes about the leak, the scandal and the perjury trial of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby in her memoir, "Fair Game — My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House." A copy of the book, which is to be released Tuesday, was purchased by The Associated Press.

She offers harsh words for President Bush, whom she assails for administration "arrogance and intolerance." She also said criticism of her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, was a "dress rehearsal" for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth effort that impugned Sen. John Kerry's war record during his unsuccessful quest for the presidency in 2004.

Plame often writes from the perspective of spectator to a scandal. She discusses being uncomfortable in the limelight, even as she poses for magazine photographs, attends posh Washington fundraisers and is whisked backstage at a rock concert.

The book represents the first time that Plame has publicly discussed the scandal in detail. After a lengthy trial, an FBI investigation, countless news articles and congressional testimony, however, few revelations were left for Plame's book.

Some of the details Plame had planned to offer, including discussion of her CIA career and her job responsibilities, are redacted in the book. Sometimes that means whole pages of blacked-out text. The CIA objected to the publication of this material and Plame lost a court fight to include them. CIA employees have to clear their writings with the agency.

Syndicated columnist Robert Novak revealed Plame's identity in 2003 in a story about Wilson's CIA-sponsored trip to Niger. Wilson said that trip debunked some prewar intelligence about Iraq's nuclear ambitions, yet the intelligence made it into Bush's State of the Union address that year.

Shield Law's Financial Test

Some bloggers who report on politics and other issues but either don't get paid or have other careers apparently wouldn't be covered by the journalists' shield bill just passed by the House.

This is a tough question: I don't think every single person who whips out a video camera and gets into a fracas or even simply writes about an event is automatically a journalist. But I don't think that a financial test is the answer, either.

And the problem with a shield law is this: that which isn't covered specifically by the law is most likely going to be declared illegal. And thus we have a law governing a free press. Bad move.

Strengthen the whistle-blower law (my commenter's view to the contrary); stop using anonymous feeds from the government, of any political persuasion, to attack others and, if a source deliberately lies, then out him. But don't give up your right to print that which, in many cases, shouldn't be classified anyway, to gain some limited protection from the law. In the end, it's not going to be on your side.


From OpenLeft

The House just passed the Free Flow of Information Act, a 'shield law' protecting journalists. Here's the rub.

The bill provides journalists with a qualified privilege as to sources and information, while at the same time, recognizing the need for effective law enforcement and robust national security. A blogger who regularly engages in journalistic activities - such as gathering and publishing news and information for dissemination to the public - and does so for a substantial portion of the person's livelihood or for substantial financial gain would be covered by the shield as a journalist.
I have no opinion as to whether shield laws are a good idea or not, but it's worth noting that this law doesn't cover amateurs, consultants like me, people like Steve Clemons, diarists on Kos, or anyone else who derive most of their income from other sources. I don't understand why 'gathering and publishing news and information for dissemination to the public' isn't a good enough standard.

Here's the list of supporters: Associated Press, the National Association of Broadcasters, Bloomberg News, CBS, ClearChannel, CNN, Cox, Gannett, Hearst, NBC, News Corporation, The New York Times, TIME, and The Washington Post.

All of these groups make their money from advertising. So of course, if you get a substantial amount of advertising you get special protections. Otherwise, not so much.

We've Got a Secret. Or Not.

Uh. WHAT??


Spies Prep Reporters on Protecting Secrets
By JOSH GERSTEIN
Staff Reporter of the Sun
September 27, 2007

Frustrated by press leaks about its most sensitive electronic surveillance work, the secretive National Security Agency convened an unprecedented series of off-the-record "seminars" in recent years to teach reporters about the damage caused by such leaks and to discourage reporting that could interfere with the agency's mission to spy on America's enemies.

The half-day classes featured high-ranking NSA officials highlighting objectionable passages in published stories and offering "an innocuous rewrite" that officials said maintained the "overall thrust" of the articles but omitted details that could disclose the agency's techniques, according to course outlines obtained by The New York Sun.

Dubbed "SIGINT 101," using the NSA's shorthand for signals intelligence, the seminar was presented "a handful of times" between approximately 2002 and 2004, an agency spokeswoman, Marci Green, confirmed yesterday. Officials were pleased with the program, she said.

"They believe they were very successful in being able to talk to journalists regarding our mission and the sensitivities of our mission in an unclassified way," Ms. Green said.

The syllabi make clear that the sessions, which took place at NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, Md., were conceived of not merely as familiarization tours, but as part of a campaign to limit the damage caused by leaks of sensitive intelligence.

The Citizen Media Revolution

The AP's Lou Ferrara has some interesting things to say about how far expectations for citizen media have come.

Volunteer "Reporters"

Howard Kurtz of The Washington Post looks at the phenomenon of "citizen journalists" as TV operations rely more on people who send in video clips for broadcast use.
The question, of course, is how long will it be before one of these news operations is hoodwinked by someone goofing on them or trying to push an agenda.

And, there's this weird little item about the Post and an advertising section.



Got a Camera? You, Too, Can Be A Network Reporter
By Howard KurtzWashington Post Staff Writer Monday, September 24, 2007; Page C01
Clarissa Jessup was next in line to ask a question of John Kerry at the University of Florida when another student "stole the mike," she says -- and handed her his digital camera to record the scene.
"The police had already threatened me with arrest" for refusing to "shut up" and sit down as the session was winding down, says Jessup, who adds that she had never met the other student, Andrew Meyer. When Meyer launched into a diatribe, was dragged away by campus cops and subdued with a Taser gun, Jessup, 22, quickly sent the footage to CNN -- because, she says, she wanted national attention and does not like Fox News.