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Across The Media Universe

By Brian Montopoli

December 22, 2006 / 12:00 PM EST / CBS News

(AP)

Black Out: Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann wrote an op-ed for the New York Times about Iran. As Editor & Publisher notes, it's been an open secret for days that the Times was holding the piece because of objections by the Central Intelligence Agency. Today, the piece was published – with black bars across certain passages. The authors argue that there was no reason to black out the material in question, as it contained no classified information. Write the pair: "National security must be above politics. In a democracy, transparency in government has to be honored and protected. To classify information for reasons other than the safety and security of the United States and its interests is a violation of these principles. It is for this reason that we will continue to press for the release of the article without the material deleted."

Balk!: The Bush administration and some Republicans are clashing over administration efforts to force journalists to reveal their sources. According to the Wall Street Journal, the "controversy is reaching a flashpoint in San Francisco, where the Justice Department is expected to file papers today urging that two San Francisco Chronicle reporters face jail if they refuse to reveal their source for confidential grand-jury proceedings concerning baseball slugger Barry Bonds's alleged use of steroids." Sen. Richard Lugar and Rep. Mike Pence, meanwhile, are planning to reintroduce legislation that will limit the government's ability to force journalists to give up their sources. "It's one of those things that's a little counterintuitive for a cheerful right-winger to be involved in," Pence told the Journal. "I really do believe that the framers of the Constitution put a free and independent press in the First Amendment to protect the public's right to know, and the only way you do that is protect reporters' ability to keep certain sources confidential."

Laura Left On Limb: After First Lady Laura Bush complained that "there are a lot of good things that are happening [in Iraq] that aren't covered" last week, some conservative commentators said the time had come to give that particular argument a rest. We noted Rich Lowry's comments earlier this week: "The 'good news' that conservatives have accused the media of not reporting has generally been pretty weak." Add to that the comments of David Brooks, who said "…at some point, face reality," and Tony Blankley, who chimed in with "…to say that that's no longer correct reporting -- whatever the media did badly in the past, I don't think is valid." Writes Columbia Journalism Review's Paul McLeary: "Well, we didn't see that coming."