Daniel Schorr, Cough it Up!

Daniel Schorr, Cough it Up!

In 1976, CBS reporter Daniel Schorr obtained and published a copy of secret House of Representatives intelligence committee hearing. A court ordered him to reveal the name of the leaker. Schorr refused and went to jail. He's still a hero among journalists for his refusal to give up his sources.

Today, Robert Novak is being pressured by this colleagues to give up the name of the person who told him that Valerie Plame worked at the CIA. What's the difference?

"Never burn a source," writes Geneva Overholser of the New York Times. "It's a cardinal rule of journalism: do not disclose the identity of someone who gives you information in confidence. As a staunch believer in this rule for decades, I have surprised myself lately by concluding that journalists' proud absolutism on this issue--particularly in a case involving the syndicated columnist Robert Novak--is neither as wise nor as ethical as it has seemed."

You know damned well that Ms. Overholser does not have the best interests of national security in mind. If she did, it would be a first for her.

Mike Leonard, president of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists opines "if I were party to a crime I'd fess up and not hide behind journalistic privilege."

The difference is that embarassing a Republican administration is what both episodes were all about and journalism's highest calling is to do violence to Republicans.