Journalist Facing Fines Urges Press to Protect 1st Amendment
PHILADELPHIA — A former USA Today reporter facing fines for failing to reveal her sources for stories about the 2001 anthrax attacks said Saturday that news organizations need to go on the offensive in the fight to protect the First Amendment.”
As we all know, the news business is on a collective nervous breakdown,” Toni Locy told a coalition of open-government and press groups. “It’s time to stop running. It’s time to turn and fight. If we don’t fight for the First Amendment, who will?”
Locy, who now teaches journalism at West Virginia University, spoke at the annual convention of the National Freedom of Information Coalition.
She said the country needs a shield law that would protect reporters from having to reveal their sources.
“The First Amendment needs some help,” she said. “In this environment that we’re in now, it needs some help.”
Locy is appealing an order from U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton that requires her to pay as much as $5,000 a day until she gives up her sources for stories about the government’s investigation of the anthrax attacks.
The order comes as Locy has been drawn into a lawsuit by former Army scientist Steven Hatfill, who came under FBI scrutiny after the attacks. Hatfill accuses the government of violating his privacy by talking to reporters.
After the attacks, Attorney General John Ashcroft called Hatfill “a person of interest” in the investigation, and stories by various reporters, including Locy, followed. Hatfill had worked at the Army’s infectious diseases laboratory from 1997 to 1999.
No one was ever charged in the anthrax attacks, which killed five people and sickened 17 others, and the case remains unsolved.
“I was fair; I was accurate; I was skeptical,” said Locy, who has also worked for The Associated Press and other news organizations.
On Friday, judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit questioned whether Walton’s order went too far and whether Hatfill really needs the information, since his attorneys have asked for a trial date.
The National Freedom of Information Coalition, based at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, is an alliance of state and regional freedom-of-information organizations, academic centers, and other groups focusing on issues related to the First Amendment.
© 2008 Associated Press
I think it is about time that the press made Bush and Cheney persons of interest. Hatfill was completely devastated by these allegations by Ashcroft.
The far right is correct when they say that there’s a deliberate news bias in the press. They’re wrong about which direction that it’s coming from. It’s the far right. FOX owns the biggest volume of news media and presents its opinion as fact.
Corporate America SHOULD be afraid of the journalists, not going to dinner with them. The journalist must be as objective as possible with their sources. But what we have today is the opposite. Journalists brag about their ‘friends’ who are ‘experts’ at something. Journalism in America is a way of networking your way up the social and economic ladder. Today a journalist trying to be objective and tell the truth is marginalized or as in the case above, criminalized.
Hoa binh
The “anthrax letters” came right after 911 and effectively cut off congress from its constituents. It takes weeks for a letter to filter through now. There was a huge search for the terrorist(s) responsible, great invasions of privacy, until it was found that the anthrax strain came from one of our own (nonexistent under treaty) bio-weapons labs.
That story was in the news for about a day or so, and you never heard about it again. The search was over. As seems to be the case too often these days, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”
128 Reporters have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The U.S. Government destroys documents like the DOD files on “Able Danger Group” and its relationship with Mohammed Atta. The U.S. Government destroys videos of “Criminal Acts” like the 200 hours or more of Torture and “Brainwashing” videos from Guantanamo. The U.S. Government destroys over 5,000 e-mails concerning the political firing of U.S. attorneys by the Justice Department.
Yes, the Anthrax Scandal was never solved even though the FBI, allegedly, linked the anthrax back to a DOD Lab in Maryland…..If one googles the Anthrax Scandal of 2001 and the mysterious deaths of microbiologists working with anthrax then one might be able to connect the “demolition” of World Trade Center #7 and the suspected use of explosives to demolish that building.
There is NO Freedom of Press. What you have is a National Media controlled by a “Political Elite” and any reporter who tries to expose that political elite finds himself or herself out of a job and attacked by the “Political Elite”.
Two recent stories died: The story about the DOD sending out retired generals to propagandize the proposed invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan to the American People via the National Media. And today´s revelation that the DOD was using an animal crematorium to cremate bodies from Iraq at Dover, Delaware……..Please, Freedom of Press?
As Justice Anton Scalia said to a group of Pennsylvania law students, “Get use to it, you lost!”
What is the elipsis? The fact that the American People lost their Constitution and their Democracy, they were stolen in the election of 2000 along with 4 million electronic presidential votes (See: “Uncounted”, a documentary)………
Asking compromised corporate news media to protect the 1st Amendment in regards to a former employee is like asking for medical coverage from a former employer.
Reporters aided and abetted the government smear. Reporters allowed themselves to be used to destroy somebody. This one is withholding evidence of that scheme and she has to disclose that evidence.
If Bush nationalizes the MSM then all journalists will become Public Servants. That will make selling Government propaganda even easier! There’ll be no conflict of interest.
P.S. Israeli Nacbah in Spain? Check Dangerous Creation asap!
Has anyone read Glenn Greenwald’s Great American Hypocrites? His chapter on John McCain & the love affair the mainstream media has been having with him is a real eye-opener. It’s why I think McCain will ultimately prevail.
I think we have to stop worrying about them (MSM) altogether, and do everything we can to create a brand new progressive media with integrity and dignity.
Rich Griffin, we have a few progressive medias (magazines, radio shows and Internet sites) but with all their integrity and dignity we progressives are the only ones that read them and a majority of Americans see those site and we who read them as a fringe group, I guess we are come to think about it.
NateW and Stepfour, you guys got it right. Ms. Locy is part of the crime and she is hiding behind the Bill of rights.
this article is a masterful piece of propaganda. It has twisted, spun and hung-out truth.
Say and do anything to confuse the issue.
stepfour and papercut — Obliviously you must believe that the “free” press is only as good as ( and worth as much as ) your govt handlers permit it to be apparently.
Let’s see Ms. Locy reports on criminal extortion and treasonous subterfuge by govt agents of the neoCONut jobs, whose patho-illogicol aberration is to expect ALL of the media to lie down and pretend that they’re dead — and you then expect the only source of any truth in this matter to give up her sources of this crime, to the very govt that is behind it — and clearly want to punish whomever broke ranks and told the truth ?
Obviously, your idea of rights goes right along with the neoCONut job’s own ideas of deleting all of our civil and COnstitutional rights, to enable more streamlined corruption and propaganda - and egregious profiteering and despicable criminal actions against the only citizens willing to fight back.
Your sad, pathetic, and hopelessly twisted minds are readily apparent to anyone willing to think.
But of course the corporation’s right to infringe upon any mere human being’s right desiring to hold them accountable, must be at punished severely — or we might risk the public’s continual exposure of the underlying truths disguised.
Now that would certainly be a crime
The Bush administration, specifically someone in the DOJ (or maybe the FBI) leaked to the USAToday’s Locy, that Hatfil was a “person of interest” in the anthrax mailings (”person of interest” being a clever/slimy way of implying a possible suspect)… and Locy publishes the “person of interest” crap… and at least two things result: 1. The American People are misled, into thinking that the DOJ (or FBI) or just generally the Bush administration, is on the case and has a suspect, and 2. Hatfil becomes immediately infamous, throughout the country and the world, and certainly everyone who ever knew the man (including even his family maybe) then were led to think he’s maybe the murderous person behind the anthrax mailings…
And when it turns out not true at all, that Hatfil has nothing at all to do with the anthrax mailings, two important questions need to be answered:
1. Who specifically did this, who in the DOJ (or FBI) leaked this false information?
…and 2. Why did they do that, upon what evidence or testimony (if any) led them to claim this about Hatfil?
And not only does Hatfil want this information (as a matter of his name being destroyed, and his privacy invaded, and is why he’s suing the Federal Government for this information), but we all want to know why the Bush administration did this… why they distracted and misled the American People about their investigation into the anthrax mailings?
And of course, Locy is shielding the Bush administration, or someone in the DOJ (or FBI), from being held accountable in this matter.
Again, LOCY IS SHIELDING THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION IN THIS MATTER, BY REFUSING A JUDGE’S INSTRUCTION (in a legal proceeding aimed at getting Justice for Hatfil, and answers for the American People) TO TELL THE COURT WHO LEAKED THIS INFORMATION TO HER.
And she has the nerve to invoke the 1st Amendment in this matter, as though it were written to protect (”shield”) anonymous abuses by the Federal Government against innocent Citizens…
She wants a “shield” to protect her, while she shields the Bush administration from being held accountable to the American People, and from answering Hatfil’s (and Judge Walton’s) questions about who in the Bush administration did this to him, and why.
DEM2020 — perhaps you are correct, but I suspect the opposite.
I suspect that the govt has itself “exposed” Hatfil as a rouse to discover who within their own ranks has the audacity to leak information about the extremely UNIQUE and weaponized anthrax strain having come from within the US’s highest level of security possible, a “secret” WMD facility, with 0% chance of mistaken for another source.
Why should I care about a single suspect, when manipulation of Congressional leadership is clearly of a significantly more important impact, to our declining democracy and the public’s health ?
If the govt itself purposely leaked the information in the first place, why would it ALSO need to know who did it?
Namaste
Interesting article here.
http://www.counterpunch.org/madsenanthrax.html
This is an area that is frequently litigated and the boundaries are constantly shifting. If there is a first amendment privilege from disclosing sources, shouldn’t it apply across the board? Not just for some, not just for those you agree with? If it is lost in this instance, and it is not at all clear that such a privilege actually exists, or even which side Ms Locy is on, then it surely won’t be there when you need it to be.
‘The Republican Noise Machine’ by David Brock is well worth reading for anyone who is interested in what’s going on in MSM. It gives in detail the 30 year campaign by the conservative wing of the Republican party to hijack democracy in this country. By taking over the media and putting exactly what they want on the air. Therefore guiding the US further right in political beliefs. As we all know the media is not ‘liberal’ anymore and it’s been a good 20 years or more since it has come even come close to it. It is strictly made up of ‘Right Wing lunatics’ who spew venom daily. It’s really sad what has happened right under our noses in this country. But, still people insist on voting Republican! Sad!!!!
4thefuture — your logic is sound, and the right is to protect anyone’s sources, even when “the law” is contrary needs to be sacrosanct.
Many times witnesses to grand juries and/or investigative reporters have refused to disclose their sources, and have had to face costly contempt citations and jail time.
It is a form of a contractual _m o r a l_ obligation between the “leak” source and the publicly vulnerable “leaker” — never to reveal source identity, even when threatened, fined or imprisoned.
The larger context of overall justice requires this, while expediency and small minded ones see the opposite point of view.
When the whistle-blower is caught up in the limelight of open revelation, they typically suffer extreme hardships of their own job loss, jail time, character assassination, and even possible death. WIth our govt and corporate partners doing soooo so many illegal acts, on a hourly basis, we need to vitally encourage source protection.
Source protection is common thread with those who gladly torture “innocent-until-proven-guilty”, AS IF there were a ticking bomb and millions of lives were at stake.
The odd thing is that millions of lives really are at stake, when we allow torture and revealing of secret sources - yours, mine, and our families innocent lives.
There is no clear dividing line between the righteous and good and the evil doers, as REAL truth is in the eye of the beholder. Perception of guilt should never be taken as proof of criminality, and that is why we have a system of justice — and Constitutional protections of our rights.
Namaste
Finally, some people are waking up.
How many Schools of Journalism are there at US (and European) universities? Why has none made a real effort earlier to confront the lies in the media regarding
- genocide in Rwanda and Congo, to this day
- 911
and various other issues?
Prof Steven Jones is laid off for doing good work in Utah! And please check the rare-quality journalism pieces of Chris Bollyn
www.bollyn.com
He has been physically attacked, by the police(!!), for trying to bring out truth, this was reported on a UK website of Craig Murray. How much more does it take for people to wake up to the erosion of all our Western constitutions?