Associated Press reports:
In a joint filing with prosecutors, lawyers for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, 55, warned U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton that a trial likely will be delayed because of their strategy to seek more subpoenas of reporters' notes and other records. . . .
Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said the defense's strategy is no surprise but still alarming.
"Every key witness in this case is going to be a reporter," Dalglish said. "It's an absolutely ugly situation, . . . putting reporters in a very, very bad position, . . . and it should send a chill up the spine of American citizens across the country."
...
We cannot distinguish between sources we like and those we do not. Some [journalists] complained that [Judith] Miller's sources weren't "whistleblowers"; they were wrongdoers who ratted out Valerie Plame. And did it perhaps matter that they were Republicans, the dreaded neocons no less?
It's astonishing to think that a substantial number of journalists cheered on the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate government officials for allegedly giving accurate information to reporters. Since the days of Vietnam and Watergate, newsmen have proclaimed an ideal of "adversarial journalism." In this case, too many of them were adversaries first, journalists second--but for that, real journalists will pay the price.
-- more at Opinion Journal
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