Cracking Down on Leaks

[*michaelsean*]

(06-18-2018, 09:24 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: If the information isn't officially declassified, it is still seen as a leak.

Now, I have thought the same as you for some time, now, but the more I think about it, the more I don't know if I still feel that way. When we think about the shady shit that has gone on in past administrations and the current one, do we really trust our government to make that decision to know what is best for us on this front? That's what it boils down to. By compelling journalists to cooperate it makes it so that they lose sources because they will no longer feel safe in turning over the information. That safety needs to exist.

Journalists do reach out to the government when they have a story to say "this is what we have, do you have any comment?" If there is a legitimate threat to national security, most journalists are going to hold onto the story or write it in such a way as to protect specific information. But I don't think that we should be preventing them from putting the information out there wholesale, which is what compelling them to cooperate would do.

There's probably  a Latin legal phrase for a situation like this if not specific to this, maybe Fred would have an idea, that the very act of the President leaking it to me would declassify it.  

The fact that sources would no longer reveal things to reporters that they aren't supposed to reveal, sort of seems like that would be the whole point.  I understand there is shady crap that we would miss out on, but we need to come up with a better way then.  Every person with a clearance deciding for themselves does not seem like a good idea.