More Pulitzer Stuff

Well, Editor and Publisher is reporting that Bill Bennett said that three of the reporters who got Pulitzers deserved jail, not awards.

According to an E&P transcript of the audio of his radio program, Bill Bennett said that the reporters "took classified information, secret information, published it in their newspapers, against the wishes of the president, against the request of the president and others, that they not release it. They not only released it, they publicized it — they put it on the front page, and it damaged us, it hurt us.

"How do we know it damaged us? Well, it revealed the existence of the surveillance program, so people are going to stop making calls. Since they are now aware of this, they're going to adjust their behavior . . . .on the secret sites, the CIA sites, we embarrassed our allies….So it hurt us there.

"As a result are they punished, are they in shame, are they embarrassed, are they arrested? No, they win Pulitzer prizes – they win Pulitzer prizes. I don't think what they did was worthy of an award – I think what they did is worthy of jail, and I think this investigation needs to go forward. "

I'm not too comfortable with the jailing of journalists. But I do believe the leakers themselves committed a serious crime by bypassing the proper procedures for objecting to a policy or program. The rules are different when you hold a top secret clearance, period. Bypassing the procedure and going to the press instead is not the right way to do things. This is not"whistle blowing", this is breaking a sworn oath. It's also a felony, and the guilty parties should be tracked down.

For my part, I pointed out that the Pulitzer's this year displayed the media's blatant double standard where only a leak they deemed worthy of release was a proper leak. They pontificated that Bush's declassification of information didn't meet any accepted standard, but cheerfully took top secret information and decided it was their job to publish it.

UPDATE: Well, this is a surprise. Blue Crab Boulevard got a mention and a fairly lengthy quotation in the Columbia Journalism Review CJR Daily for this post. Thank you for the visit to our humble crab pot.