Justice or the Rape of the Fourth Estate: You Decide

A federal judge ruled today that New York Times reporter Judith Miller will now face jail time for refusing to reveal the identity of the source who divulged to her the name of undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame (See my previous entries for background information).

It is important to mention that Miller, who faced charges of contempt due to her lack of cooperation with prosecutors, did not reveal Plame’s name to the public, as doing so would have been in violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act.

In a sort of about-face, Miller’s partner in persecution, Time‘s Matthew Cooper announced today that he will now cooperate with federal prosecutors, thus ending his own fight for source confidentiality. Cooper claims that he plans to comply with the ivestigation only because his source has released him from all promises of confidentiality.

Last week, speculation inspired by Cooper’s personal notes implicated White House adviser Karl Rove as the source who put Plame’s life in danger. It should be noted, however, that Rove could be innocent and is until proven otherwise.

Prior to today’s hearing, Miller called out to reporters, reminding them of the importance of honoring their commitments to their sources. She hilighted the need to provide shelter for sources who require anonimity in exchange for important, newsworthy information.

Although neither Miller nor Cooper published Plame’s name, noted conservative commentator Robert Novak did. Novak, who identified Plame in his column, has not faced any legal threats for his actions, even though these actions could send him to jail for a decade while hitting him with a $50,000 fine.

The anonymous source went to Miller and Cooper before approaching Novak just days after Plame’s husband, ambassador Joseph Wilson, criticized President Bush’s justification for invading Iraq. In his own column, Wilson mentioned that the Bush administration told Americans that there was evidence for Iraq holding weapons of mass destruction when, in fact, the government had no proof of this what-so-ever.

For continuing updates on this case, check out this Google News feed.

To read my past entries on this matter, take a look at my personal LiveJournal.