Friday, May 05, 2006
Haha, you got subpoenaed
Update 2: It looks like I'm not the only one unimpressed by the Chronicle's "principles." From a BobLT:
The problem here is that this information was not disclosed for the purpose of a check and balance on the power of government or to help the public hold government accountable. No one suggests that the government was doing anything wrong in its criminal investigation of BALCO. Rather, the Chronice and its reporters sought to get information about athletes that, by government rule, which rule the Chronicle does not criticize, was supposed to be secret.
Update: The story has been updated to include a gratuitous comparison to the Valerie Wilson leak thingie. We've also got some ethics instructor ethically obfuscating the issue:
"It's a dangerous trend," said Aly Colon, an ethics instructor at the Poynter Institute, a school for journalists. "The public at large and the legal community may rue it in the long term."
"Journalists need an independence to not be an instrument of government," he said. "When prosecutors can use journalists as an extension of the prosecutorial arm, it creates a great risk for journalists."
"If the government can't prove its case," he said, "it's the government's business, not the press's."
In this case, the government can prove its case. The means by which it does so is by having the people who know the details of the situation testify. This is the way governments prove cases. The fact that the press is now willfully obstructing the government in its efforts to prosecute someone who has clearly violated the law, and not for any particularly important reason, should not be seen as an act of heroism.
"Subpoenaed" is one ugly word. The SF Chronicle reporters who wrote those stories on steroids in baseball or some such boring topic, Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, are getting subpoenaed, because they used grand jury testimony that was leaked. Leaking it is illegal, and so now they're asking the people who know who the leaker was to finger her. Seems reasonable. But hey, now it's time for REPORTERS SHOULDN'T HAVE TO FOLLOW THE SAME RULES AS NORMAL, INFERIOR BEINGS whining.
"The stories," they added, "would not have been possible without the help of many people -- people who are whistleblowers in the truest and best sense of the term. The government's actions raise significant First Amendment issues, and we are concerned at any attempt to stifle the public's right to know.
Normally, whistleblowers in the truest and best sense of the term are those who leak information that they can't state openly but which must be heard (maybe to save lives or something). I'm really having a hard time coming up with that kind of justification for sporting gossip. It's not like this information wouldn't ever have seen the light of day if it wasn't for the "courageous actions" of the leaker, after all.
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