By Steve Banko
Buffalo, NY – The jailing of Judith Miller for refusal to name a confidential source inspired Margaret Sullivan, the editor of the Buffalo News, to write in support of shield law to prevent the disclosure of confidential sources. Then, Lee Coppola, dean of the St. Bonaventure School of Journalism, weighed in with his concurrence that confidential sources are essential to the work of journalists. The former used a parable about a concerned public servant seeking to redress an egregious wrong perpetrated by an immoral supervisor. The latter genuflected at the altar of the Buffalo parks department worker who blew the whistle on the scandals in the department.
Both wrote eloquently in parables for public consumption that speak to the public good served by whistle-blowers who use the power of the press to reveal the dastardly deeds of high ranking government officials.
Unfortunately, neither presented anything relevant to the matter at hand.
The confidential sources that contacted the media were not well-inentioned whistle-blowers seeking to pull back the cloak of secrecy hiding government wrongdoing. The sources were high-ranking government officials seeking to destroy the reputation, credibility and character of someone perceived to be an enemy of the White House.
The source that has already been revealed by one reporter is not some average Joe on the bottom of the civil service totem pole. The source is one of the most powerful men in America, sitting at the right hand of the leader of the United States. The source was using his position at the seat of power and his professional relationship with reporters to try to publish information intended to destroy the credibility of critics. He is a professional character assassin who has a long history of just that. He shopped this information around in a Nixonian attempt to punish someone. There was nothing noble, lawful, or remotely ethical about that effort.
Professional journalists don't like the fact that Judith Miller is in jail. We, the people, get that. But let's not skew the circumstances with irrelevant platitudes about this case. Ms. Miller was thought of as a friend of the administration. She was someone the power structure thought would be an ally in their pernicious campaign to punish someone deemed an enemy. In short, Judith Miller was being used. The intent of the power brokers was to use her credibility as a journalist as a weapon to injure someone who had done nothing wrong. What's even worse is that no injury could be inflicted on Joseph Wilson directly so the powerful took the coward tack of going after his wife. Now, Ms. Sullivan and Mr. Coppola not only want us to feel sorry for Judith Miller, they lobby for the right to continue to be used in such unethical ways.
If Judith Miller wants to go to jail to preserve her reputation as someone who can be tooled by the powerful, that's her decision. But let's not confuse her with John Peter Zenger. Let's not assign her lofty motives when the publication of the information she was given would have harmed, not helped, the public good.
There are circumstances where the power of the press might be muted if confidentiality was treated cavalierly. This is not one of them. If anything, this is the opposite end of the spectrum from that argued by Ms. Sullivan and Mr. Coppola. This is a case of the powerful seeking to use a journalist to punish an enemy today and to deter other potential enemies from speaking out tomorrow. That inhibits free speech. It cannot enhance it. Judith Miller should be outraged that she was one of a very few reporters deemed friendly enough to used in this way. So should the journalism profession - or what's left of the profession. Can you imagine a White House trying to use Walter Cronkite as a tool of retribution? Yet that's the state of journalism today - when reporters are celebrities and they must curry the favor of the powerful to maintain that celebrity.
In that context, it's no wonder public opinion polls rank the media down at the bottom of trusted public institutions. Perhaps Ms. Sullivan and Mr. Coppola would like to comment on that?
Listener-Commentator Steve Banko is field director for the Buffalo office of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.