In July 2012, Fox reporter Jana Winter reported
that James Holmes, the shooter in the Aurora, Colorado theater massacre who
murdered 12 people during a showing of The Dark Knight Rises, had sent a
University of Colorado psychiatrist a notebook “full of details about how he
was going to kill people.” The notebook had pictures of a stick-figure shooting
other stick figures. She got the information, she reported, from “law
enforcement sources.”
Now, Winter may lose her journalistic freedom. Thanks to a Colorado court
ruling stating that Winter’s failure to disclose her sources deprived Holmes of
a fair trial by violating a judicial gag order, and a New York court’s agreement,
Winter may be forced to disclose the source of the information or face jail
time in Colorado. As Judith Miller, a journalist who spent 85 days in jail to
protect her sources, writes, “Given the broader assault on journalists and a
free and independent press every American should know Jana's name.”......To Read More....
My Take - Some of you are going to be surprised at my views on this issue. As a
general rule I largely hold journalists in utter contempt. They are always
slanting the news versus reporting it, and they are guilty of lies of omission
and lies of commission. Their big defensive line for doing contemptible things
is - "The public has a right to know"- which in many cases is a
crock.
They publish to
make headlines and scoop the other news outlets! They could care less about the
public! Everything they do - as a group - is done with an air of self
righteousness when in reality their actions are completely self-serving, as it
seems to me was the motive in this case.
Now....after
venting my spleen..... I have to say that I also have misgivings when this
happens. Let's face it; if reporters can't protect their sources their ability
to expose corruption and wrongdoing will be seriously curtailed. This is part
of the first amendment that is fraught with emotional landmines.
Society will
constantly go back and forth as to how far all parties should go. There will never be perfect balance to this
issue because their will always be variables. Take for example releasing
classified documents versus exposing criminal behavior of government
employees. In both cases the information
was gleaned from secret informants, but in one case most find those actions contemptible
and the other noble.
For the most part, I have to come down in
favor of journalists, but I would throw her in jail anyway, at least for a
while, say thirty days, and then released with no further judicial action. It
would be good experience in life for her and her colleagues. Sometimes you are
only left with bad choices. This is an issue of balance, throwing her in jail
helps create balance and a sense of proportion in journalists, the courts and
the legislature.
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