Marc Ambinder (April 14, 2008) – McCain Panders* To His Base; Supports Shield Law
The shield law would give great license to you and your sources, with few restrictions, to do as you please no matter the stakes involved and without fear of personal consequences beyond the rebuke of your individual consciences. It is, frankly, a license to do harm, perhaps serious harm. But it also a license to do good; to disclose injustice and unlawfulness and inequities; and to encourage their swift correction. The First Amendment is based in that recognition, and I am, despite the criticism of campaign finance reform opponents, committed to that essential right of a free society. I know that the press that disclosed security secrets that should have remained so also revealed the disgrace of Abu Ghraib, a disgrace that made it much harder to protect the American people from harm. Thus, despite concerns I have about the legislation, I have narrowly decided to support it.
Of course, the difference that this pandering, weaselly sack of guano fails to comprehend is that the press never “blew the whistle” on Abu Ghraib – the Army did the right thing and reported it on its own MONTHS before the press chose to cover it. It was the later release of salacious photos that ensured months of gleeful front-page coverage. Not the desire to do any good; the situation had already been corrected. For McCain to conflate Abu Ghraib reporting with the deliberate blowing of Swift, a legal, effective, anti-terror program, is a total disgrace.
But hey, Johnny Mac got to suck up to the press once again, and that’s what really counts. Right?
