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« Should the Journalists Talk? | Main | From Portland to Nashville » October 1, 2003Do Journalistic 'Ethics' Require Protecting a Criminal?The Tennessean opines on the Plame name leak 'scandal' with an over-the-top headline that calls Plame a "CIA spy," as if she is doing James Bond stuff in hostile foreign countries. C'mon, folks. She worked a desk job at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. But that's not the part of the editorial that raised my ire. This is: Reporters respect the confidentiality of their sources. That confidentiality, which is crucial for investigative journalism, will likely protect the leaker.After writing that the outing of a covert agent by a federal official is a serious crime punishable by 10 years in prison, The Tennessean says journalistic ethics allow journalists to, in effect, harbor the felon. Sorry, but journalists are not above the law. If a crime was committed, the journalists have a responsibility to provide law enforcement with the evidence they have. The Tennessean says it doesn't trust Attorney General John Ashcroft to investigate the Plame affair. Okay. But the solution isn't an independent counsel and a long, expensive scandal probe. The solution The Tennessean ought to be urging is for the journalists who claim to have been approached by the leaker to just come forward and reveal the leaker's identity. Then there would be no need for an investigation at all. Perhaps we can conclude that the The Tennessean has raised the red herring of journalistic ethics in hopes that the journalists won't reveal the name of the leaker and bring this story to a close because the paper doesn't want the story to end. A long, expensive scandal probe just might bog Bush down during the campaign season ahead. Comments
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