Contempt on steroids in S.F.

09/20/06

Their startling stories about Major League baseball provoked a national debate on the dangers of illegal steroid use. Incredibly, San Francisco Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams could be sent to jail today in a contempt case that should never have seen the light of day.

At issue is a Justice Department subpoena that seeks to force the reporters to reveal who provided them with grand jury testimony in the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO) case. Federal judge Jeffrey White is set to decide whether their refusal - aimed at protecting the anonymity of their sources - merits jail time.

Federal authorities have been zealous in pursuing the reporters, but they haven't been so tough on themselves. After all, it was their own blunders that resulted in the release of information they meant to expurgate. The information, filed in an electronic court brief, summarized e-mail messages between BALCO President Victor Conte Jr. and Fainaru-Wada. The FBI obtained the e-mails when they searched Conte's home. In the messages, the two discussed the possibility of Conte giving Fainaru-Wada a copy of grand jury materials. Shortly after the exchange, the Chronicle ran a story quoting from the grand jury testimony of Olympic sprinter Tim Montgomery.

One might deduce that the feds already know what they want to know. People involved in the case, including Conte,

have served time behind bars. What is the point in launching a gratuitous attack against the reporters?

This summer, a number of conservatives called for the prosecution of New York Times reporters after the paper published a story regarding a government program tracking the bank transactions of terror suspects - despite the fact that President Bush had on numerous occasions publicly talked about tracking terrorists' financial transactions as part of the war on terror.

The work of a free press is imperiled by the threat of government persecution. Congress is considering a national reporters' shield law, which would give journalists a qualified privilege. Most states already have such protections, and we urge the Senate and the House to act now.

Theodore Olson, former solicitor general in the Bush administration, testified Wednesday in support of a shield law, saying it would promote investigative journalism. Such protection would ease the burden on the San Francisco journalists whose coverage of the baseball steroids story has been a valuable public service.