Open & Shut
From the Summer 2005 issue of The News Media & The Law, page 56.
A recent collection of funny, fascinating, nonsensical or just notable newsworthy quotations
“I don’t know what the law says, so I can’t tell you if I’m for it or against it.”
— President George W. Bush on a proposed reporters shield law to the Radio-Television News Directors Association Board June 1.
“Cooper! I thought you’d be in jail by now.”
— Bush to Matthew Cooper who in July recalled a December interview with the president.
“They put shackles on my hands and my feet. They put you in the back of this car. I passed the Capitol and all the office buildings I used to cover. And I thought, `My God, how did it come to this?'”
— Judith Miller after her first few hours in jail, as quoted in July 7 edition of The New York Times.
“She did an American thing. She told the king to get lost.”
— St.Petersburg Times columnist Howard Troxler on Judith Miller, July 10.
“[It’s] like playing a game of Whac-A-Mole. As soon as you handle one, another one pops up. “
— An aide to Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. , on proposed exemptions to the Freedom of Information Act in unrelated legislation, reported by Cox Newspapers in June.
“They never expected that this country could be ruled by a power that is unchecked, unbalanced, unelected, unreliable and undemocratic. They never thought that the day would come when the press was no longer free and no longer responsible.”
— Former U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) on the media’s influence growing beyond what the Founding Fathers envisioned. The quote, from his memoir, “Here’s Where I Stand,” was reported June 9 by The (Raleigh) News & Observer.
“In law enforcement, we would prefer that if somebody has information about a crime they come to us. The next best thing is to let them talk to a reporter.”
— Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, quoted in the June 6 Salt Lake City Weekly.
“Do not hesitate, waver or cower. Yours is essential, noble work.”
— Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather at the annual meeting of Investigative Reporters and Editors in June.
“There have been times when I have been very curious and would like to know, but that’s insufficient.”
— Oklahoma Attorney General W. A. Drew Edmondson to The New York Times on why in 20 years as a prosecutor he never felt it necessary to subpoena a reporter for information about a source.
“We’ve kept that secret because we keep our word.”
— Bob Woodward on shrouding the identity of Mark Felt — Deep Throat — for 30 years, as quoted in The Washington Post June 1.
“It seems to me you gain as much in prestige in keeping your word as you lose in losing the scoop.”
— Former Washington Post Executive Editor Ben Bradlee in the June 2 New York Times on getting scooped by Vanity Fair on the Mark Felt story.
“Mark Felt did what whistle-blowers need to do. He took his information to reporters who diligently dug up the evidence to support his well-founded suspicions. The republic was saved and the public well served.”
— Washington Post columnist David Broder in a June 7 column.
“Well, it’s a funny thing because even as this case supposedly is drying up confidential sources all over town, in this very case people are leaking like crazy. And, of course, they leak for partisan ends.”
— New York Times reporter Adam Liptak on newsgathering in the wake of Judith Miller’s jailing, to NPR’s Terry Gross.
“The basic issue is, do reporters work for the government or do they work independently? If we work for the government, we may as well hang up our notebooks.”
— Lisa A. Abraham, a reporter for The Akron Beacon Journal, in a July 1 Baltimore Sun story. Abraham spent 22 days in an Ohio jail in 1994 for refusing to testify before a grand jury about an elected official whom she had interviewed and who later was indicted on numerous counts.
“How can the public know if the government is doing anything about the problem if they can’t find out about the problem?”
— Illinois Supreme Court Justice Robert R. Thomas during arguments in May in a case about whether reporters can review state cancer registry data.