Time for Robert Novak to Feel Some Chill

[Cassandra]

http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/20...

"I, for one, have had it with Robert Novak. And if all the journalists who are talking today about "chilling effects" and individual conscience mean what they say, they will, as a matter of conscience and pride, start giving Novak himself the big chill.

That means if you're a Washington columnist maybe you don't go on CNN with him-- until he explains. If you're a newspaper editor you consider suspending his column until he explains. If you're Jonathan Klein, president of CNN/US, you take him off the air until he decides to go on the air and explain. If you're John Barron, editor of the Chicago Sun-Times, you suspend him (with pay, I should think); and if Barron won't do it then publisher John Cruickshank should.

If Novak says he can't talk until the case is over, then he shouldn't be allowed to publish or opine on the air until the case is over. He should know the rage some of his colleagues feel is real. Claiming to be "baffled" by Novak's behavior may have been plausible for a while. With Miller now sitting in jail, and possibly facing criminal charges later, "baffled" is sounding lame."

Good article with good comments. Thanks to Atrios for the link.

[JDPriestly]

1. I'm wondering what sort of heel has refused to

release Miller from her promise to maintain the secrecy of his identity as her source. How could any person allow another to go to jail for the reasons that Miller is in jail. What a coward Miller's source must be. It really annoys me that such a person is now working in the White House. We don't need cowards in high places.

[Cassandra]

2. It may be something else

She may not be cooperating because it may incriminate her in a crime. She wouldn't be a criminal for receiving the info but if she passed it along to someone who then released it publicly, that could be damaging to her.

[plcdude]

4. I think you've got it

That is what I am thinking also. Otherwise she would be in the same position as Miller. She won't testify because she will forced to admit that she is somehow involved other than just receiving the information. She will have to plead the 5th which will be a great embarrassment to NYT. She is going to jail to protect herself nothing else make any sense.

[JDPriestly]

8. If that were the case, she could plead the Fifth Amendment

and not testify at all. The prosecutor would be forced to find the information through some other means, and, the fact that he has obtained a contempt order against her suggests that he cannot. She would go scot free.

[GOPFighter]

3. I agree 100%

We need to go after Robert Novak. He is the ultimate slimeball! How ironic that conservatives rant about liberals being traitors when Novak, one of their own, OUTED A CIA AGENT!

[EC]

5. The Sun-Times (editors note) today even are hitting on

Fitzgerald for being too zealous, saying that Plame was JUST A CLERK and the law wouldn't apply to her...I hear this same rationale over and over from the right...I'd just once like to hear someone set them straight on that one...

[EC]

6. You do remember that Richard Perle is on the board

of the Sun-Times don't you?

[Cocoa]

7. cut him down to three zillion jobs

from his current ten zillion.