PressEthic

Coverage of the Judith Miller case continues in the October 10th issue of Time magazine. It’s evident here that this is not just a case of a reporter refusing to give up a source (the article calls it a “murky sequence of events”).

There’s also a quote from Jay Rosen, NYU Journalism School chairman, calling the case “a complete loser for the press.” “It exposed this traffic in secrets. And whenever the press is claiming rights that are an exception from the rest of the public, then I think it works against the press.”

Is there a misunderstanding among journalists about the rights of the press? Now that the media landscape has been so dramatically changed by technology and competition within the news industry, the First Amendment and protecting your sources may not be enough. We can’t simply change laws, but a more thorough group discussion among journalists and legal scholars about what the laws say in this new context and in light of the Miller case may be in order.