Taking a Leak and Turning It into a Flood

Our era is a bit confused and journalists often see themselves as representatives of countries without borders. Naturally, I appreciated reading a story in The Weekly Standard (Oct 22 2007) by Gabriel Schoenfeld. Coming out of congressional committees are versions of a journalist's "shield law" which might be more properly called "license to betray" legislation. The "free press" is afflicted by group-think and is not so free at all as they jump off journalistic cliffs with the enthusiasm of lemmings.

You ought to read the story yourself but the jist of it is that:

a) Bureaucrats in Washington illegally leak stories to the press to further their own agendas.

b) In their hunger for journalistic fame, reporters are only too anxious to rush such stories into print no matter who gets whacked.

c) Foreign intelligence services and terrorist enemies would wrap themselves in the cloak of a journalistic shield law to "turn" disloyal Americans into collectors of information for adverse interests.

Is there anything so dumb as that. If you're finding this writing too blunt and perhaps simple, read the article yourself to discern the subtle distinctions.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/014/229mqmdz.asp