Could Nicholas Kristof be heading to jail?
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- October
- 24
A Virginia judge has ordered the columnist and his newspaper, The Times, to disclose the identities of three confidential sources for a column he wrote about the Anthrax attacks in 2001. The man who became “a person of interest� in the case, Dr. Steven Hatfill, is suing the paper for defamation. He claims a series of columns written by Kristof suggested he was responsible for the attacks that killed five people and seriously scared the crap out of your’s truly.
Mr. Kristof has declined to name the sources but “the judge ruled that the laws of Virginia applied and that under the state’s law, reporters have only a qualified privilege to decline to name their sources that may be outweighed by other factors,� The Times reports.
Kristof, who was named one of the seven most fascinating people in Scarsdaleâ€â€along with his wife, Times’ journalist Sheryl WuDunnâ€â€by Scarsdale Magazine, and has won two Pulitzers for his incredible reporting from overseas, originally wrote about a scientist he referred to as Mr. Z who had become the main focus of the government’s investigation. Later, he acknowledged that Mr. Z was indeed Dr. Hatfill.
The Times is appealing the decision. But the question is: Could Kristof be thrown in prison ala his former colleague, Judith Miller if he refuses to comply? And if he becomes the second major Times’ journo to be forced to reveal his sources this year, what does that say about the state of press freedom in the country today?
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on Tuesday, October 24th, 2006 at 10:09 am by Suburbarazzi.
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I think I read that original story. Didn’t Kristoff publish it in Vanity Fair? If it’s the one I’m thinking of, it made a very compelling case that Hatfied dun’it.
Check that. The article I’m thinking of is
“The Message In The Anthrax,� by Don Foster, Vanity Fair, October 2003.
Strangely enough, this is by the same guy I’m quoting from in parts of my article on “The Night Before Christmas.” Weird. Maybe we should be sending that guy, Don Foster, to jail instead.