Leaks

One hopes-- a faint unlikely hope-- that the denouement of the Judy Miller affair will finally get the New York Times and other news organizations to rethink the way they handle leaks.

There is no excuse for maintaining the anonymity of a leaker who misleads or lies, or for the blanket acceptance of leaks by prosecutors of grand jury information (or defense attorneys, for that matter) who do so only to add leverage to their case or smear their adversaries, or for publication of any national security information unless there is an overwhelming case for doing so. And maybe news organizations, most of whose reporters refused to publish the name of Valerie Plame, will turn their attention and wrath against their colleagues who had no such compunction. And let me repeat a suggestion I have made before: if there is a nefarious leaker out there, who has shopped around a story to several reporters that is factually or morally wrong, why not use fire to fight fire: let one of those reporters leak the source's name anonymously.