Co-opting media

Let me share my “Looking Glass” version of Tim Rutten’s column about Matt Cooper and Judith Miller facing jail time because they refuse to reveal their journalistic sources [“Reporters Should Be Shielded From Jail,” Feb. 19].

Bush administration officials realize, as have powerful people before them, that a free press threatens their ability to rule as they please. So instead of resisting the press, they co-opt them. Instead of keeping information from journalists, they flood those journalists with anonymous bits of information. Their anonymity shields them from having to tell the truth, and the pride of the journalists keeps them from tampering with that anonymity. Thus the administration gains and maintains strict control over the flow of information through their chosen journalistic outlets.

The revelation of Valerie Plame as an undercover CIA agent may or may not be a crime. But Cooper and Miller are not shielding whistle-blowers. Quite the opposite is happening. These desperate journalists are clinging to the myth that they represent a free press.

They may go to jail to defend that myth, because without it they are revealed as nothing but bought-and-paid-for spokespeople for the very power structure that a free press is meant to stand outside. I pity them. I pity our country more.

Renee Leask

Glendale