News & Opinion

Thanks to AG’s threats to indict press in leak cases, reporters need not rely on 1st Amendment to protect sources. They can take the Fifth. By Peter Scheer Our Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, has stated publicly that he believes journalists may be prosecuted under federal espionage laws for publishing articles based on leaks of classified information. The comments, in an ABC News interview, were directed at the New York Times (for its disclosures about NSA’s

Why the doom-and-gloom about the settlement in the Wen Ho Lee case? Under the circumstances, this deal is a victory for the press By Peter Scheer “Deeply troubling.” “Profoundly disturbing.” “A huge disappointment.” So intoned various media law mavens in lamenting the decision of the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, ABC News, Washington Post and Associated Press to join in a settlement of an invasion of privacy lawsuit filed by Wen Ho Lee, an

Wanted by the FBI: Journalists’ phone records showing calls to and from confidential sources. By Peter Scheer Last week two reporters for ABC News reported that the FBI had secretly obtained their phone records—showing whom they had called and who had called them—in order to identify a confidential source as part of an apparent leak investigation. Neither ABC nor the reporters, Brian Ross and Richard Esposito, had an opportunity to go to court and try

Dan Gillmor, a pioneer of journalism on and about the Internet, is the newest member of CFAC’s board of directors. Gillmor is currently director of the Center for Citizen Media, a joint project of UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School. Gillmor was a technology columnist at the San Jose Mercury News from 1994 to 2004. He is the author of We the Media:

Regulators analyzing MediaNews’ acquisition of the San Jose Merc, CC Times and Monterey Herald will focus on role of Hearst, owner of SF Chronicle. Will publishers disclose their secret antitrust filings? By Peter Scheer The MediaNews Group, which proposes to buy the San Jose Mercury News, Contra Costa Times, Monterey Herald, and 30 Bay Area weekly newspapers, is paying a 20% premium over the price that McClatchy paid Knight-Ridder for these same publications less than