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July 2005 Archive

Note that some of these links are short term and will expire after two weeks. If you have access to Lexis-Nexis at your college or university library, you can retrieve many of the stories that are no longer on the web.

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Living in a Media World is on vacation until August.

I will have occasional entries during the next month, but there will not be daily updates until August. Have a great summer!

Friday - July 8, 2005

Miller / Cooper History and Update
I may be on vacation from my blog, but the news doesn't stop just because it's summer. The big story that has brought me back is the Supreme Court's refusal to hear an appeal from Judy Miller and Matt Cooper on their contempt case for refusing to testify about the identity of their confidential sources. As long-time readers of this blog know, I consider this to be one of the most important news business stories of the last year, far more critical than Bill O'Reily's adventures in decency, more important than faked memos, more important even than John Stewart slapping around CNN.

So here's the story from the beginning.

On July 14, 2003, syndicated columnist Robert Novak disclosed the name of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame. Her husband is former ambassador Joseph Wilson, who investigated and discredited intelligence claims that Iraq had tried to buy uranium from a West African nation. (He also wrote a follow-up column on October 1, 2003.) Critics charge that someone in the Bush administration leaked the name to Novak in order to discredit Wilson.

In August of 2004, Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper was held in contempt of court for refusing to answer questions about who leaked the name of undercover CIA officer Valerie Plame. A few days later, New York Times reporter Judith Miller was subpoenaed by the grand jury investigating the leak. It should be noted at this point that neither Miller nor Cooper had outed Plame. That honor/shame belonged to Novak alone.

In late August, Matt Cooper testified about his conversations with I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby after the vice president's chief of staff released Cooper from his promise of confidentiality.

In October, the NYT reporter Judith Miller was found in contempt of court and ordered to jail for refusing to testify. She remained free while her case was on appeal.

Things stayed relatively calm until February of 2005 when a federal appeals court upheld the lower court orders that Miller and Cooper must testify or go to jail. In April, their sentences were stayed until the Supreme Court could rule in their case. In May, lawyers for the two journalists filed their appeals with the United States Supreme Court. Then, in June, the court finally met to decide whether to hear the appeal.

Finally, on Wednesday, July 6, Judith Miller was ordered to report to jail for her refusal to testify before the grand jury. Time magazine's Matt Cooper was spared going to jail when his employer turned over his notes and e-mails to the courts, and his sources released him from his promises of confidentiality. Surprisingly to me, a number of people seem to be pleased to see journalists either going to jail or being forced to testify; though many are horrified.

The Miller / Cooper case raises a number of questions and issues:

• From the start, there have been concerns about how the subpoenas would affect journalists and the news business. Though some, including the Chicago Tribune's Don Wycliff, thought that Miller and Cooper ought to have testified all along.
• The subpoenas against Miller and Cooper have not been isolated incidents. In September, the same federal prosecutor who went after reporters in the Plame case went after reporters' notes to discover whether government officials had leaked information to reporters about an investigation about an Islamic charity. And Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus testified in the Plame case after he was released by his source. Rhode Island television reporter Jim Taricani was sentenced to six months of home confinement for refusing to reveal who leaked a copy of an FBI surveillance tape to him. Note again that Taricani had violated no law in reporting; he was only in trouble for refusing to testify
• Why is Miller in jail when Novak is the one who published the leak that was potentially illegal?
• Who were Matt Cooper's and Judith Miller's sources? While at this writing we don't know who Miller's sources were, we do know that Cooper spoke with Scooter Libby. And it appears very likely that Bush's deputy chief of staff Karl Rove was also one.
• If these cases had been in state court, the reporters might have been protected by shield laws that keep reporters from having to testify in many situations. But as of now there is no federal shield law, though a variety of organizations have called for one.

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