I did see that. But she must have said something to them. Just "no comment"? Or maybe she referred them to her attorney? And then her attorney asserts her right to keep sources confidential?
But when the government manages to plug a leak that happened to hand things to the media (compared to leaks that handed things to, say, foreign governments), people are surprised that the Constructionally guaranteed freedom of the press doesn’t actually include a right for the media to keep sources confidential. That’s why Judith Miller ended up in jail (and the story I heard was that her first legal team thought she had a right to keep sources confidential, which is why she spent so long in jail).
> people are surprised that the Constructionally guaranteed freedom of the press doesn’t actually include a right for the media to keep sources confidential
Is this really true? As opposed to the right getting trumped occasionally through some technicality? If it's true, why do reporters so commonly expect to keep sources private?
But maybe I've missed the point. To remain private, the source must not share their identity with the reporter. Is that it? That's why the NYT etc have Tor-based leak drops.
I’m sorry I didn’t see this earlier. My comment was based on what I remember from attorneys discussing why Judith Miller was in jail for refusing to name her source, and why she only got out of jail when Libby told her she didn’t need to keep protecting him.
According to Wikipedia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reporter%27s_privilege ) there is some kind of legal privilege, in some cases. But since reporters do end up in jail for contempt of court, it certainly doesn’t go as far as they seem to believe.
