Monday, April 04, 2005

More on the Boucher bill to protect reporters from federal investigators

Someone from the Village Voice has this post about the need for Congressman Boucher's bill to protect reporters from federal investigations.

I don't dislike Congressman Boucher's bill, but the idea that reporters should be entitled to a privilege like doctors or priests or lawyers or spouses is not just wrong, it's offensive, and the rationale that the public won't know what the government is doing unless government officials can secretly break the law by telling state secrets to reporters is absurd.

The remedy is - either the stuff, whatever it is, should not be secret in the first place, or if the secrecy is justified, the leaking should be punished, not encouraged.

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