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Tue 6 Mar 2007 21:17
by Kevin McGehee
in Coweta County, GA
[Courting Disaster]
[Media Ochre]
[Yippee-Ki-Yay!]
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The case was hard on the news media, too.
“The trial has demystified the priestly practices of Washington journalism,“ said Roy Peter Clark, a senior scholar at the Poynter Institute, a school and resource center for working journalists. “I think we’ll see prosecutors going after journalists more often.“
Nearly a dozen of Washington’s best-known journalists took the stand during the five-week trial to recount confidential interviews. Most of them testified unwillingly, under court order. Only 13 media subpoenas had been granted in the previous 15 years involving confidential sources, according to the Justice Department.
Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald obtained waivers from several government officials that released journalists from their confidentiality promises, a tactic that media advocates say is coercive and chilling on potential whistleblowers.» AP: Libby Trial Prompts Scrutiny on Media
Tough shit. The “news” media have been using their power to promote the criminalization of political disagreement since the Pentagon Papers and Watergate. You can only sow the wind so many times before the whirlwind crop finally comes in.
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