Dodd's bill of rights

10/01/06

He is Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut and one of the reasons he may end up running for President is because he thinks his country has gone wrong in so many ways he loses count sometimes. This was Sen. Dodd talking the other day about a federal shield law for reporters he has co-sponsored with Sen. Richard Lugar and Sen. Arlen Specter, a bill we might need in George Bush's America to keep Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams of the San Francisco Chronicle out of jail.

"This isn't just about guys in your business," Dodd said to me the other day. "It's not about you and it's not about me. This is much bigger than that: It's about your readers, and it's about my constituents, having a right to information."

The bill that was authored by Dodd and Lugar, a Republican, and has now added Specter, another Republican, to its list of sponsors, would give a "qualified privilege" to reporters like Fainaru-Wada and Williams, who have done more to illuminate steroid use in baseball, and educate the public about steroid use, than any elected official, any baseball official, any baseball player. Anybody, period. Only now they face serious jail time because they won't divulge the name, or names, of the people who leaked them grand jury testimony in the BALCO case.

Nothing has happened to the ballplayers involved, even the ones who reportedly admitted to steroid use. Greg Anderson, who was convicted of distributing illegal steroids, he is in a jail cell because he has refused to testify in front of a new grand jury in this case. So it is worth pointing out again that in the eyes of these San Francisco prosecutors, there is no distinction made, none, between the guys pushing the drugs and the guys reporting about the drugs.

But if an appeals court doesn't save Fainaru-Wada and Williams, and their case doesn't make it to the Supreme Court, they could end up serving as much as 18 months in prison.

"You know what happens in a lot of these cases?" Sen. Dodd said the other day. "You see laziness on the part of some of these prosecutors. They throw reporters in jail because that's the easy route. But if they're allowed to continue to do that, if they stay on that route, then investigative journalism would be gone in this country, and that would be a terrible thing."

Sen. Dodd is not looking to protect reporters in cases of national security. His bill, which he says gets "winnowed down" as it moves along ("We're not going to get what we originally wanted, but we've got to get something," he said), would not protect any journalist who was an eyewitness to a crime, would not protect somebody who had the chance to prevent death or bodily harm. Would not offer protection in cases of terrorism.

But it would protect two great reporters from San Francisco who reported on steroids in baseball, and who should never be anywhere near a jail cell for doing that. What Sen. Dodd is really talking about is some perspective, some balance, about the information being presented, and the purpose it serves.

For now the ballplayers involved in BALCO are safer than the reporters. For now, the only people looking to stop this system are Dodd and Lugar and Specter. They do it by trying to change the system. Because the system is wrong. I mentioned to Dodd the other day that no administration in history has ever attacked the protections of the First Amendment as aggressively as this one has.

There was a pause on the other end of the phone and finally Dodd said, "If you added up the attacks of all the other administrations (on the First Amendment), they cumulatively wouldn't add up to what we've seen from this group."

"Listen," Dodd said. "What (the federal government) is really trying to do is force whistleblowers as far as possible into the shadows. When that happens, even with a free press, then wrongdoing goes unexposed. And that is always the real crime. Because when whistleblowers are forced to retreat, then we lose the kind of reporting we have gotten on Katrina, we lose the kind of reporting we've gotten on Iraq, we lose the kind of reporting we've gotten on Halliburton. We have created a system where people like these reporters, who succeeded where everybody else - baseball especially - had failed miserably, are being told this. 'If you don't do what we want you to do, we will make you suffer.' "

Dodd is a good man and a tough guy. Now he has helped write a bill that will help good men like Fainaru-Wada and Williams. In so doing, he helps us all.

"This isn't about blue states versus red states," Chris Dodd said. "This is about right and wrong. And sending these two reporters to jail would be a terrible wrong."

Somebody tell the President.

The one who said he wanted drugs out of baseball.

I have been reminded this season what a truly great Yankee Jorge Posada has been.

A great, classy Yankee now, and for a long time.

I know the Mets can score, but there have been nights lately, even before Pedro Martinez shipped out of the season for good, when I wanted Ron Darling to get down there and start warming up.

The death of the great Byron Nelson the other day, at the age of 94, was another occasion to remember the real golden era of his sport, when he and Ben Hogan and Sam Snead were all in their primes.

There has never been a time quite like it in golf, and probably never will be again.

Now Jeter is Jeter, and he's going to win the MVP in the American League, as much of a case as people who have watched Frank Thomas this season - on a team with no other significant offense - want to make about the Big Hurt.

But sometimes when you watch the Mets, you think their shortstop is every bit as valuable to them as Capt. Jeter is to the Yankees.

Tell me again when I was supposed to start caring what Jeremy Shockey thinks.

Even though I think he's making great strides as a columnist.

Next he's even going to try some bigger words.

I know the cops in Dallas are supposed to be the bad guys in the Terrell Owens thing now, and we're supposed to think they're the ones who got hysterical.

And of course the media is bad, bad, bad for reporting the episode as a suicide attempt, even though that's clearly what the original police report was saying it was.

But it wasn't the media who made that 911 call.

That call was made by Owens' friend, the Divine Miss Etheredge.

Take another listen to it.

Then tell me what the first responders were supposed to think was going on at Owens' place.

One more time, here is the math on Pedro:

They signed him for four years, hoped for three, still haven't gotten two.

But if they somehow manage to get to the World Series in Year 2 of his contract, even with this starting pitching, guess what?

The guy was worth it.

I didn't realize it for a long time, but Lou Holtz is one of the good guys.

I don't know if I've got any eligibility left at Boston College, but if the kicker misses one more extra point, me and my soccer-style leg are heading back to Chestnut Hill.

Just the season that Chad Pennington has had so far is more Jets season than we ever thought we were going to get out of him.

The minute I heard Andy Rooney talking about his new book, "Out of My Mind," on Imus the other day, I ran straight to the bookstore. And I was glad I did.

The second episode of "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" was even better than the first.

And last Tuesday's "House," where the autistic boy handed House his video game on his way out of the hospital, was merely the best ending they've ever had on that show.

Oh, don't worry, TiVo helps me stay on top of this stuff.

You know what Brady Quinn really did with that comeback last Saturday night against Michigan State?

Kept his team in the conversation.

And kept himself in the Heisman conversation.

By the way, if you want to keep track of what's happening with Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, or would like to help, please go to a terrific new Web site, MarkandLance.org.

The way things are going, I think Tiger Woods could win the National League pennant.