Knowing how some of our 104 part-time legislators feel about the press, my guess is the local media people had best hope for a judicial rule — and then pray the Legislature doesn't pass a statute outlawing the rule.

With Miller going to jail for 85 days before Libby said she could reveal his name (he was subsequently indicted, not for the leak itself but for apparently lying to the grand jury about his media contacts), Congress is expected to debate a federal reporter shield law, as well.

Pollsters and journalism experts say there's a problem with "confidential" sources. Readers don't know who they are, they don't know if the reporter is making the stuff up, so the public doesn't know whom to trust.

I recall with a smile a highly amusing poll conducted by the former editors of The Salt Lake Tribune. The editors asked their readers (not the public at large, but their own subscribers) that if a Trib story said one thing and a Utah legislator said another, whom would you believe, the Trib or the legislator?

Considering that the newspaper subscriber was paying something like $9 a month for a news source and most likely had never met a legislator, what idiot would pay $9 a month for a news source they didn't believe? And sure enough, the poll showed that Trib readers would believe the newspaper over a legislator.

So while media critics and newspaper editors may debate the correct use of unnamed sources and whether the public has become less and less trusting of the mainstream media, the fact is reporters need to use unnamed sources, especially in some political, judicial and crime reporting.

Who is going to say for attribution that the governor or Senate president are drunks (they are not, but you likely couldn't get someone to say even if they were) or that a powerful mayor needs electroshock therapy (he doesn't, although some would probably like to watch if he did).

Scooter and Judy aside, shield law or no, unnamed sources are required for reporters to tell the public what their governments are doing. It's how America works and has worked for more than 200 years.

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Deseret Morning News political editor Bob Bernick Jr. may be reached by e-mail at bbjr@desnews.com