Too broad a shield

Turning on one another, that is -- notwithstanding their famously intertwined roots. So in the "who-leaked-Valerie-Plame's-name game," Scooter Libby leaves Judy Miller languishing in the pen for want of that crucial up-close and personal waiver; Judy thanks Scooter with grand jury testimony that leaves him deep in legal doo-doo; Karl Rove and mysterious turncoats in Dick Cheney's office also reportedly finger Libby as the leaker; Judy's colleagues at the New York Times keep busy trashing their erstwhile heroine. It almost makes you think there's no such thing as loyalty anymore, doesn't it?

But Judith Miller has quite a few allies left when it comes to the question of whether Congress should enact legislation to prevent courts from forcing journalists to disclose their sources. Though the "circumstances" surrounding Miller's jail time "lack the comfort of moral clarity," as Executive Editor Bill Keller so delicately put it in a memo to his demoralized New York Times staffers, media outlets across the country have rallied around Miller's call for a federal shield law.

This is a mistake.

The bill Congress is considering -- the ludicrously titled "Free Flow of Information Act" -- is a spectacularly foolish piece of legislation. It will shield criminals as often as journalists and prevent the public from getting the information necessary to prosecute crimes.

In its current form, the proposed legislation would absolutely prohibit federal courts from compelling journalists to disclose the identity of someone they "believe to be a confidential source." The only exception -- in the House version of the bill -- would be in circumstances where disclosing the identity of a source "is necessary to prevent imminent and actual harm to national security."

OK. So a Jeffrey Dahmer copycat tells Judy Miller that he ate half a dozen people for breakfast and intends to eat six more at lunch. Investigating law enforcement officers ask Miller to reveal the source for her upcoming feature on "Great Recipes With Human Ingredients." Miller declines. Under the proposed legislation, investigators and prosecutors are out of luck. The Dahmer copycat munches his way through more victims while Miller enjoys a series of Pulitzer Prize-winning scoops.