Disgraced reporter Judith Miller has now become the face of a renewed push for a journalists Federal Shield Law. Too bad the cause is now associated with Miller, because it is both a noble and necessary measure.

Fortunately, my uber-pal Steve Montiel who directs the USC Annenberg Institute for Justice and Journalism (where I also work), has come up with a more fitting hero for this cause: former New York Times reporter Earl Caldwell. Writing in the S.F. Chronicle, Montiel takes us back to 1970 when Caldwell, a back reporter, had info on the Black Panthers that the Feds wanted:

"Thirty-five years ago, while reporting from the Times’ San Francisco bureau, Caldwell rebuffed FBI requests for his notes, twice refused to testify when subpoenaed before a federal grand jury, and took the fight for his rights as a working journalist to the Supreme Court. His stand against the government inspired the creation of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and led to expansion of state shield laws protecting journalists.

His case, grouped with the cases of two other journalists as Branzburg vs. Hayes, was the only time the Supreme Court has considered whether the First Amendment guarantees journalists protection from revealing confidential information."

When Caldwell’s case finally got to the Supremes, a newly seated Justice Rehnquist led a 5-4 vote against him. Caldwell escaped imprisonment, however, because the Grand Jury that had originally subpoenaed him had expired.

But within months, literally dozens of other American journalists found themselves jailed as the Feds requested their testimony and their notes in various cases. Simultaneously, a number of states began to bolster or implement press shield laws.

Montiel recounts that Caldwell, now a writer-in residence at Hampton University, is rather amazed at the wholesale backing that his former employer offered to Judith Miller at the onset of Plamegate. Caldwell got no such similar level of support from the Times in the 70’s – in fact the paper declined to defend him initially. Caldwell and other black reporters, along with civil rights groups, had to raise the resources for his defense. The Times came to his support, finally, in the appeals process. Nor did Caldwell get the million dollar book contract that Miller is likely to land any minute. His courage should be remembered by all reporters and editors.

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