SpeedBalling

Journalism is not a profession or a trade. It is a cheap catch-all for fuckoffs and misfits— a false doorway to the backside of life, a filthy piss-ridden little hole nailed off by the building inspector, but just deep enough for a wino to curl up from the sidewalk and masturbate like a chimp in a zoo-cage.

The recent refusal of the Supreme Court to hear the Miller/Cooper appeal has once again forced the debate over whether or not journalists deserve special constitutional privilege into center stage, and unsurprisingly, journalists are eager to shine the spotlight on this question.

Surprising to some may be that I wholeheartedly support citing these journalists with contempt, and I truly believe that journalists should enjoy no special privilege or immunity whatsoever from being compelled to reveal sources in grand jury testimony, or in trials where no reasonable Fifth Amendment right can be claimed.

At the core of my opinion is my belief that secrecy always serves deceit. Whether in government, business, or personal affairs, the desire for secrecy almost always arises from a desire to gain advantage over someone else by controlling the information available to them, and thus causing them to make decisions and take actions that they would not take if they were aware of the information being withheld from them.

Journalists - and governments, and everyone else, for that matter - justify this deceit by claiming that it serves the greater good (or lesser evil).

Ironically, just as this case was being decided, the identity of "deep throat," the ultimate example of an anonymous source whose revelations benefited the public at large, was finally revealed. What came as a shock, and really shouldn't have, was that his motivations were purely selfish, and that his contact with the press was motivated not by an altruistic sense duty to his nation, but a thirst for revenge against the individuals and organization that he felt had slighted him.

At the end of the day, I believe that there are more than enough good people, who are willing to stand up and tell the truth regardless of the consequences, to keep journalists supplied with all the information they need to keep the public well informed. On the other hand, providing a guarantee of secrecy to those who divulge closely held information only encourages cowards to exploit their privileged positions for personal gain.

While there may be a few isolated cases where personal deceits do result in greater public goods that does not change the basic fact that wrong is wrong, and in sum, foul deeds inevitably result in pain and harm.