These last days I've been reading comments about unnamed sources. Are news reports based on anonymous sources to be considered valid? Many seem to think not. But, for many years they have been the cornerstone to in depth, critical reporting.
It would seem many might not step forward if named especially if circumstances were threatening or unpopular. Whether related or not this leads me to a story I read this morning. As I see it another assault on the truth by the power and the establishment and one over this past decade is fully supported by most of our federal courts.
Medill Innocence Project
Founded in 1999, the Medill Innocence Project at Northwestern University gives undergraduate students firsthand experience in investigating wrongful convictions under the tutelage of Professor David Protess, the Project's director.
Upon being freed from death row on February 5, 1999, Anthony Porter lifts Professor David Protess in an embrace as then-students Shawn Armbrust (back turned), Syandene Rhodes-Pitts and Tom McCann watch. Porter had come within 50 hours of execution before being exonerated with evidence developed by Protess and his reporting team.
Protess and his journalism students have uncovered evidence that freed 11 innocent men, five of them from death row. The Project's work, which has been featured on "60 Minutes," "48 Hours," "Dateline NBC" and the front pages of The New York Times and the Washington Post, has been cited for stimulating a national debate on the death penalty.
An Illinois governor once cited those wrongful convictions as he announced he was commuting the sentences of everyone on death row. Journalism students performing at the highest level of their craft.
Northwestern University's Medill Innocence Project is in a standoff with Cook County prosecutors
Below Citation - Daily Northwestern
The Medill Innocence Project is caught in an ongoing legal battle with the Cook County state’s attorney office, and will not turn over the documents subpoenaed in the case of a man convicted of murder 31 years ago, said Medill Dean John Lavine.
The attorney’s office has requested access to all e-mails, student grades, course syllabi, expense reports and unpublished notes and tapes from students formerly involved in the Investigative Journalism class, who investigated the case of Anthony McKinney. McKinney was convicted of killing a security guard in 1978 in Harvey, a Chicago suburb, and has been in prison for the last 31 years.
Beginning in 2003, students in Prof. David Protess’s Investigative Journalism class — as part of Medill’s Innocence Project — researched McKinney’s case at the request of McKinney’s brother. According to the Medill Innocence Project Web site, nine student reporting teams were involved with the project over three years, and in 2006 their research was given to the Center of Wrongful Convictions at the NU law school’s Bluhm Legal Clinic. In Oct. 2008, the Bluhm Legal Clinic filed a post-conviction petition for McKinney in the Circuit Court of Cook County.
"Every time the government starts attacking the messenger as opposed to the message, it can have a chilling effect," said Barry C. Scheck, a pioneer of the Innocence Project in New York, who said he had never seen a similar demand from prosecutors.
The State Attorney is looking for a bias by the students.Local prosecutors have subpoenaed the grades, grading criteria, class syllabus, expense reports and e-mail messages of the journalism students themselves.
Among the issues the prosecutors need to understand better, a spokeswoman said, is whether students believed they would receive better grades if witnesses they interviewed provided evidence to exonerate Mr. McKinney.
Above citation and complete story - NY Times
It would seem serious, investigative journalism in this country is under assault. It has been by the courts and the government. There are no shield laws covering bloggers and as we see students. The 4th Estate is close to being a thing of the past and we will be left with the Villagers and the TM who have shown they often are no more than lemmings following single sourced leaks and seeking no balance to their reporting only pursuing talking points.
If the school gives in to such a demand, say advocates of the Medill Innocence Project and more than 50 similar projects (most involving law schools and legal clinics), the stakes could be still higher, discouraging students from taking part or forcing groups to devote time and money to legal assistance.
Illinois has a state Reporter’s Privilege Act; i.e. a shield law:
§ 8-901. Source of information. No court may compel any person to disclose the source of any information obtained by a reporter except as provided in Part 9 of Article VIII of this Act.
The term "reporter" is defined as:
§ 8-902. Definitions. As used in this Act:
(a) "reporter" means any person regularly engaged in the business of collecting, writing or editing news for publication through a news medium on a full-time or part-time basis; and includes any person who was a reporter at the time the information sought was procured or obtained.
(b) "news medium" means any newspaper or other periodical issued at regular intervals whether in print or electronic format and having a general circulation; a news service whether in print or electronic format; a radio station; a television station; a television network; a community antenna television service; and any person or corporation engaged in the making of news reels or other motion picture news for public showing.
bmaz at FDL
An excellent piece and comments dealing with legal issues.