"The editor of The Cleveland Plain Dealer said last night that the newspaper, acting on the advice of its lawyers, was withholding publication of two major investigative articles because they were based on illegally leaked documents and could lead to penalties against the paper and the jailing of reporters.
The editor, Doug Clifton, said lawyers for The Plain Dealer had concluded that the newspaper, Ohio’s largest daily, would probably be found culpable if the authorities were to investigate the leaks and that reporters might be forced to identify confidential sources to a grand jury or go to jail."
**Sometimes, the leaker is doing a service to the country by breaking the law (think Pentagon Papers). **
More often, they’re just acting in their own interests. Either way, it’s illegal. If they’re so concerned with the greater good, have the guts to operate out in the open.
"Splain to me how risking incarceration is in they’re best interest? "
the risk is apparently not that great since there haven’t been many in the news lately going to jail for illegally leaking information. the benefit to them is that they get the scoop, their paper prints the story first, and they get a raise and a nicer car. Pretty simple really.
If these guys have information which their conscience says is important enough to break the law to leak, then the leak should be important enough for them to take the penalty for doing so.
Is it just me or is it more likely that the Cleveland Plain Dealer made a calculation that announcing that they weren’t running a story would make a bigger splash than actually running the story?
"Is it just me or is it more likely that the Cleveland Plain Dealer made a calculation that announcing that they weren’t running a story would make a bigger splash than actually running the story? "
That would be an awfully big risk as well. As soon as they announce, they run the risk that someone in law enforcement is going to ask them visit them and ask them about it. I guess they can say that since they’re not printing it, they don’t have to tell anyone anything about it, but they run a risk of either having to turn someone over, or be exposed as having lied about the whole thing to begin with.
Like nearly every other state, OH has a journalist shield law. So, if you want to leak something that would be so dramatic as to call the attention of federal prosecutors, would you leak it to the Cleveland Plain Dealer? Don’t think so.
Did I tell you about the earthshaking leak that I didn’t post on Slowtwitch yesterday?
“Did I tell you about the earthshaking leak that I didn’t post on Slowtwitch yesterday?”
No but the Cleveland Plain Dealer did tell us about the earthshaking leak they didn’t print. The info was leaked illegally already, they just aren’t printing it. If you think it’s not going to get some questions from LE, I think your wrong.
Like nearly every other state, OH has a journalist shield law. So, if you want to leak something that would be so dramatic as to call the attention of federal prosecutors, would you leak it to the Cleveland Plain Dealer? Don’t think so.
Uh, Art, if federal prosecutors are interested, a state shield law won’t protect the journalists. State laws are ineffective against federal crimes.
So your answer is apparently yes, if you wanted to leak a story of national significance, you would leak it to the Cleveland Plain Dealer rather than some backwater place like the Washington Post or the NY Times.
Hmm, trying to think of all the national stories broken by the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Nope. Can’t think of one.
In fact, I never heard about the publication until they went public with the story that they weren’t going public with the story.
Why do I think they were more likely worried that if they ran with their story, no one would care or notice?
“So your answer is apparently yes, if you wanted to leak a story of national significance, you would leak it to the Cleveland Plain Dealer rather than some backwater place like the Washington Post or the NY Times.”
Maybe the reporter working for the Cleveland Plain Dealer had something to do with this? If the guy has a contact and gets the information through him, then what does it have to do with the Times or the Post? I don’t think anyone said that some phantom person came out of the mist looking for someone to leak this info to. A staff writer at the CPD got a scoop.
My point is that I simply don’t believe the Cleveland Plain Dealer. I think they had a choice of two stories. They picked the one that would make the biggest splash. If they thought the “leak”, assuming there really was a leak, was a better story, they would have run with it. They would have loved to be at the center of a controversy. So would the reporter.
Funny how this “story” about a “story” is timed to coincide with the reporters who are under court order to reveal a source in connection with an investigation. If government “leakers” got locked up, there would be less leaking. There is a whistle blower statute to protect “good leakers”.
Sooooo reporters should be able to say what they want with no standards? If a reporter is not held responible for writing top secert info or not naming a source then the gloves are off and journalist can write what ever they want and claim they got their shit from an unnamed source.