Judith Miller, the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times, has spent three months in jail fighting for a principle that matters to all of us: a reporter’s right to protect her sources so that we can all know what is really happening in the halls of power or on the streets of our cities. Without her willingness to suffer imprisonment for this important underpinning of a free press, we would rarely learn about miscreant politicians or the inner workings of gangs or police spy files.
Judith Miller is one of several reporters who presumably know who in the White House leaked the name of a CIA undercover agent, Valerie Plame, to columnist Robert Novak, who, in turn, made the information public. Allegedly, Plame’s “outing” was in retaliation for her husband’s report discrediting President Bush’s claim that Saddam Hussein was seeking nuclear materials in Niger. A federal grand jury subpoenaed the reporters involved in an effort to identify the “leaker” because it is a crime to reveal the name of an undercover CIA agent.
Unmasking Valerie Plame not only ruined her career as a secret agent, but also gravely jeopardized all of her contacts in the netherworld of spies.
While other reporters in the case either caved in to the grand jury rather than go to jail or persuaded their sources to release them from their pledge of confidentiality, Judith Miller did neither. So, she sits in jail because she refuses to budge on the principle of protecting one’s source. She believes that if journalists don’t maintain confidentiality, they will never again receive important information that the public needs to know. It is ironic that this New York Times reporter, from a newspaper that is highly critical of the Bush administration, is probably protecting a top official on the president’s White House staff.
Why, one might wonder, is this principle of protecting sources so important? Why is it more important than bringing a criminal to justice? Because the story of Valerie Plame’s exposure needed to be told. It needed to be told in order to protect other undercover agents from similar reprisals, reprisals that would severely weaken our entire spy network. Few sources will risk their own skin to make sure a story gets told. But they may be willing to talk to a reporter if they are promised absolute confidentiality.
Second, if the story is not told, there may never be a crime to prosecute because no one will know it happened. That was the case with the infamous Watergate burglary, Deep Throat and President Nixon. Certainly countless other crimes and corruption would go unreported and unpunished as well, such as murders revealed in jailhouse interviews and bribery involving government officials. A free and independent press is a cornerstone of our trust in institutions.
Third, knowing that misbehavior might appear on the front pages of newspapers is a strong deterrent to wrongdoing. Whether it’s exposing the excessive salaries of non-profit executives or the lucrative contracts given to one’s big contributors or corporate cooking of books, it is investigative reporters who usually tell the public the story. Public knowledge and outrage is one inducement to our institutions and their leaders to do what is right. While this doesn’t work perfectly, just look at the countries without press protections to see how corrupt they can become.
Because recent court decisions have not been favorable to protecting press sources, Congress has proposed several bipartisan bills to ensure that protection, within relatively strict limits. Congress recognizes the importance of a press that can report difficult and often embarrassing stories, so that the public can be fully informed.
These bills need to become law. If not, Judith Miller may continue to languish in prison for a principle that we all should cherish: the ability of a free press to inform us about what is right and wrong in America. So, don’t forget Judith Miller. She is standing up for our right to know. And we should all be grateful to her for that.
Gail Schoettler is a former U.S. ambassador, Colorado lieutenant governor and treasurer, Democratic nominee for governor and Douglas County school board member.
