Journalists love to parade around as defenders of the First Amendment whenever they’re asked to reveal a source. In reality, cases where they actually pay a price for that defiance are few and far between. One of the most famous examples is former New York Times reporter Judith Miller, who became a cause célèbre during the Valerie Plame affair.
She sat in a jail cell for 85 days before finally agreeing to limited testimony before a grand jury. Miller’s reluctant cooperation eventually led to Lewis “Scooter” Libby being exposed—while her other sources remained protected.
But here’s the glaring double standard: what happens when it’s not a journalist shielding a source, but a federal agent violating a citizen’s privacy? When the FBI “outs” a private citizen—illegally—and that person wants accountability in civil court, suddenly the rules change.
There’s no First Amendment privilege, no army of media lawyers rushing to defend the individual’s rights. Instead, the FBI hides behind layers of bureaucracy and shrugs off the violation as though constitutional protections don’t apply to ordinary Americans.
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