By Martin Fishgold of the International Labor Communications Association:
"Defending First Amendment rights is sometimes hard to swallow.
Recently, we were asked by The Newspaper Guild and a number of other media organizations to hold our collective noses and defend the rights of all journalists, including Novak and Miller, who have been subjected to prosecution for refusing to reveal their sources. Miller has been held in contempt of court by a Federal judge, and Novak, clearly the most suspect in the government's payback, has so far avoided prosecution and will probably continue to avoid it because of his connections.
In the case of Jim Taricani, an investigative reporter for WJAR, an NBC television affiliate in Provindence, Rhode Island, defending journalistic rights not to reveal sources is a no-brainer. On November 18 Taricani was convicted by Federal Court Judge Ernest C. Torres of criminal contempt because of the reporters refusal to identify confidential sources who leaked an F.B.I. videotape to him in 2001. As Taricani's lawyer points out, broadcasting the tape did not affect the defendants' ability to have a fair trial.
In the case of Novak and Miller, defending their rights as journalists goes against most of our sense of ethics. The question is: Are they really journalists, or just government dupes?
The issue of defending First Amendment rights seems to come down to an absolute: if you open the door for interpretation, you open the door for abuse of the privilege. From my point of view, one must allow the Nazis and the Novaks to slip in under the coverage if one wants to defend First Amendment rights. The only redress I can think of is for responsible journalism groups like The Newspaper Guild, the Society of Professional Journalists, The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and FAIR to make these distinctions and make it clear that people like Robert Novak seriously compromise journalistic ethics by their actions and should be drummed out of all professional journalism organizations."
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