San Diego Union Tribune: Absent anonymous sources, truth suffers

[question everything]

UNION-TRIBUNE EDITORIAL
Confidentiality matters

Absent anonymous sources, truth suffers

June 2, 2005

(snip)

Arguably, had it not been for the protection of confidentiality extended to Felt by Woodward, the truth about the Watergate cover-up and other crimes committed by senior Nixon administration officials would never have been brought into the open. President Nixon himself might have succeeded in suppressing the facts – and surviving to finish out his term.

In our view, history will judge not only Felt but also the Post reporters as the white knights of the Watergate era for revealing the corruption in the Nixon White House despite a determined cover-up by government officials. Beyond that, the "Deep Throat" saga is a timely reminder that preserving the confidentiality of unnamed sources is absolutely critical to gathering and reporting the news. And the real beneficiary of a reporter's pledge of anonymity to a source is the public, which otherwise would remain in the dark about the inner workings of government and many other institutions.

Even at this moment, however, The New York Times' Judith Miller and Time magazine's Matthew Cooper are facing up to 18 months in federal prison for refusing to divulge the identities of confidential sources. Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has sought to compel their testimony in connection with his probe into whether Bush administration officials violated the law by leaking the name of CIA undercover agent Valerie Plame.

Nearly every state has adopted a "shield law" to protect journalists from having to identify confidential sources, except under the most extreme circumstances. But there is no federal shield law, a lapse that has prompted the attorneys general of 34 states, including California's Bill Lockyer, to file a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court supporting Miller and Cooper.

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