Silent Heroine
"If journalists cannot be trusted to guarantee confidentiality, then journalists cannot function and there cannot be a free press.
-NYTimes Reporter Judith Miller, speaking in her own defense
"Ms. Miller will be the first Times reporter to serve time behind bars for refusing to disclose sources since M.A. Farber spent 40 days in a New Jersey jail in 1978. In the Farber case, The Times itself was also fined $286,000. Four years later, Gov. Brendan T. Byrne pardoned Mr. Farber, who is now retired, as well as the paper.
"The case highlights a collision of the press's right to protect its sources, the government's ability to investigate a crime and even the Bush administration's justification for going to war in Iraq."
-reporter, NYTimes, Adam Liptak
While some question how ethical it was for these journalists to expose the CIA operative but not disclose their source, I salute Ms. Miller for her courage. I wish I could say long live freedom of the press, but today these Constitutional lines have lost their power. Judge Hogan doesn't acknowledge a fundamental part of the First Amendment, and by refusing to hear this case the Supreme Court gives their silent consent to his decision. What happened to the days of Watergate, when a source was able to come forth from the shadows to dispel corruption, and not be hindered with fear of those more powerful? We give up our rights little by little and before we know it our Constitutional freedoms will hang by a thread.
And so Ms. Miller, I admire your courage. Thank you for standing for something.
"The right of civil disobedience is based on personal conscience, it is fundamental to our system and it is honored throughout our history."
-Judith Miller
-NYTimes Reporter Judith Miller, speaking in her own defense
"Ms. Miller will be the first Times reporter to serve time behind bars for refusing to disclose sources since M.A. Farber spent 40 days in a New Jersey jail in 1978. In the Farber case, The Times itself was also fined $286,000. Four years later, Gov. Brendan T. Byrne pardoned Mr. Farber, who is now retired, as well as the paper.
"The case highlights a collision of the press's right to protect its sources, the government's ability to investigate a crime and even the Bush administration's justification for going to war in Iraq."
-reporter, NYTimes, Adam Liptak
While some question how ethical it was for these journalists to expose the CIA operative but not disclose their source, I salute Ms. Miller for her courage. I wish I could say long live freedom of the press, but today these Constitutional lines have lost their power. Judge Hogan doesn't acknowledge a fundamental part of the First Amendment, and by refusing to hear this case the Supreme Court gives their silent consent to his decision. What happened to the days of Watergate, when a source was able to come forth from the shadows to dispel corruption, and not be hindered with fear of those more powerful? We give up our rights little by little and before we know it our Constitutional freedoms will hang by a thread.
And so Ms. Miller, I admire your courage. Thank you for standing for something.
"The right of civil disobedience is based on personal conscience, it is fundamental to our system and it is honored throughout our history."
-Judith Miller
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