Quote:
Originally posted by Atticus Grinch
Yeah, except we allow state shield laws to apply to "unprivileged" matters, like videotape of a junkie shooting up in a flophouse in the presence of others. These laws don't really create a privilege relationship between reporter and source anyway. The underlying facts aren't privileged, but we've made a policy decision that we want people to trust the press. So we give the press a special little shield to use to protect their own asses from spending a night in jail every time their confidential source gets into hot water.
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The existence of statutes suggests that the activity is not protected by the First Amendment. It may, or may not, be a useful policy to protect the press in those situtations, and to call it, in essence, a right of the press. But the press, like states, isn't something that really has rights. The interest to be protected is the public's interest in full information, which can be ensured (in part) by protecting the press from lawsuits that would hamper their ability to gather and diseminate news. But the rights of the press are not themselves an end, just a possible means to an end.
