http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002839788Attorney Explains Why Reporters Not Targeted In 'Plame' Lawsuit
NEW YORK Attorney Erwin Chemerinsky, a co-counsel for Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame Wilson, said the couple's lawsuit against three top Bush administration officials who leaked her CIA identity in 2003 does not include reporters who received and reported the information because they were not "the appropriate targets."
"My sense is that there wasn't a desire to get into freedom of the press issues here," Chemerinsky told E&P today, one day after the lawsuit was filed. "The appropriate targets of the lawsuit are those who abused their power in government."
Chemerinsky even acknowledged that the reporters' eventual disclosure of their sources actually aided in the ability of the Wilson's to sue. "Obviously, their identifying their sources along with all of the work of the special prosecutor provided the factual basis for the lawsuit," he said. "Some of those facts came as a result of what reporters said, some came from other places."
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Chemerinsky stressed that the lawsuit seeks to hold the government officials accountable more than the reporters because they abused their power. "Government officials decided to punish Joe Wilson by revealing that his wife was a secret agent," he said. "The government officials abused their power by revealing that highly classified information."
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