Senators Chris Dodd and Dick Lugar wrote
a piece calling for a federal shield law for journalists so they could keep the identity of their sources confidential.
I'm not persuaded that this is the right time to move ahead on this. I've a number of points, but request help making the case.
- American journalism needs to do some self-regulation on the subject of anonymous sources. Anonymous sources have abused the process. Until journalism creates accepted practices to reduce these abuses it is premature for Congress to act.
- American journalism needs to create a bill of particulars about how the institution fucked-up on the Iraq War. Again, the institution needs to do house-cleaning before they get help from the government.
- Any shield law should exclude prosecutors providing damaging evidence against the accused. If the innocent get tried the prosecutor shouldn't be able to malign the person's reputation through the media and not be held accountable.
- Any shield law should exclude sources acting on behalf of their organization. Priests shilling for the church would not be covered. Gang members shilling for their crime organization would not be covered. And the president's lackeys committing crimes would not be covered.
Shield laws should protect the weak from retribution by the powerful, not the powerful from accountability for criminal acts.
What modifications should I incorporate into this list?