From Deseret News archives:
Sometimes journalists must use unnamed sources
The public is now getting to see some of those relationships up close as the CIA undercover agent leak scandal unfolds in the nation's capital.
And this week we learned that perhaps the most famous print journalist of our generation, The Washington Post's Bob Woodward, had heard that Valarie Plame was an undercover CIA agent several days, if not several weeks, before her name was printed in Bob Novak's national political column and the whole White House/leak investigation started.
Woodward kept his mouth shut, only telling his top editor several weeks ago.
He says flatly that he never told anyone that his "top administrative source" told him about Plame because he never wrote about it and didn't want to be subpoenaed by the special prosecutor once the leak scandal broke.
Woodward's silence during all this stuff his offer to go to jail for a few days to serve contempt time for the soon-to-be-retired Judith Miller of the New York Times (who did admit to talking to a top White House aide but wouldn't tell a federal grand jury who that was) is odd.
Flash back now to the relatively boring journalism world of Salt Lake City.
I've covered local and state governments here for nearly 30 years. (Orrin Hatch had been in office just two years when I first interviewed him as a cub reporter.)
No one named "Scooter" has ever whispered to me about secret agents or weapons of mass destruction.
Instead, we get campaign finance scandals with nutty husbands stealing from their in-laws.
We get county mayors giving tax dollars to the well-intentioned nonprofits where their daughters work.
But there is one constant between the big-time D.C. scandal and the relatively-honest Utah political system: confidential sources and how you handle them.
Utah is one of the few states that does not have a reporter shield law. Neither does the federal government.
Local media leaders here are working to get (a) a judicial rule promulgated by state court administrators to give some limited source protection and/or (b) a regular Legislature-adopted shield law for reporters.
Comments
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104
Maybe someone out there can help me understand how raising the state...
This almost tops the balloon people.
WHY can no one on these boards spell the word LOSE?!?!?!? It is not "loose"....
Isn't it funny how BYU fans were giving Utah fans crap about only beating...
All terrorists are muslims??? Tell that to the Irish National Liberation...
Scoreboard. Win. We didn't lose the Idaho or SW Baptist. Enough Said.
Anything can be proven or disproven with science! It all depends on what you...
that all the Ute fans have nothing better to do with their lives than hate BYU.
Say what you want, but winning ugly beats losing anytime. They played good...
"three movies it has in the pipeline for next year: "Hot Tub Time Machine,"...
keep it coming utes. We struggle in one game and you clowns jump on the 4th...


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