:: NEWS COCKTAIL aka BlahBlahBlog ::
"Everything is being compressed into tiny tablets. You take a little pill of news every day - 23 minutes - and that's supposed to be enough." -Walter Cronkite, RE TV news. The Web has changed that for many, however, and here is an extra dose for your daily news cocktail. This prescription tends to include surveillance and now war-related links, along with the occasional pop culture junk and whatever else seizes my attention as I scan online news sites.:: 6.30.2005 ::
:: RE the Plame Name Game ::
Time magazine will turn over reporter's notes
From Newsday, NY
NEW YORK (AP) -- Time Inc. said Thursday it would comply with a court order to deliver the notes of a reporter threatened with jail in the probe of the leak of a CIA officer's name. The New York Times said it was "deeply disappointed" at the move, which came days after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the journalists' appeal.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan is threatening to jail Matthew Cooper, Time's White House correspondent, and Judith Miller of The New York Times for contempt for refusing to disclose their sources.
The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear the reporters' appeal and the grand jury investigating the leak expires in October. The reporters, if in jail, would be freed at that time.
In a statement, Time said it believes "the Supreme Court has limited press freedom in ways that will have a chilling effect on our work and that may damage the free flow of information that is so necessary in a democratic society." ' But it also said that despite its concerns, it will turn over the records to the special counsel investigating the leak.
"The same Constitution that protects the freedom of the press requires obedience to final decisions of the courts and respect for their rulings and judgments. That Time Inc. strongly disagrees with the courts provides no immunity," the statement said.
In a statement, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., publisher of The New York Times, said: "We are deeply disappointed by Time Inc.'s decision to deliver the subpoenaed records." He noted that one of its reporters served 40 days in jail in 1978 in a similar dispute.
"Our focus is now on our own reporter, Judith Miller, and in supporting her during this difficult time," Sulzberger said.
On Wednesday, Hogan agreed to hold a hearing next week to consider arguments against jailing the two. But he expressed skepticism that any new arguments would change his mind.
"It's curiouser and curiouser; I don't understand" why the reporters are asking for more time, Hogan said. "It seems to me the time has come. Much more delay and we will be at the end of the grand jury."
Time magazine's lawyers had revealed Wednesday that the company was considering turning over the documents sought by the grand jury, a step that Cooper said he hoped the magazine did not take.
Fitzgerald said that the documents are Cooper's notes of his interviews.
"On balance, I think I'd prefer they not turn over the documents but Time can make that decision for itself," Cooper said outside the courthouse.
Meanwhile, columnist Robert Novak, who was the first to identify CIA officer Valerie Plame in print, told CNN he "will reveal all" after the matter is resolved, adding that it is wrong for the government to jail journalists.
Novak, who has not been held in contempt, has not commented on his involvement in the grand jury leak investigation.
Read more here.
posted by me
:: 10:11:00 AM [+] ::
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