Schwarzenegger: I'll Be Backing Shield Law
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 6/6/2007 3:20:00 PM
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will support of a federal shield law, according to a copy of a letter supplied to B&C.
In the letter to Indiana Republican Congressman Mike Pence, a driving force behind the Free Flow of Information Act , the governor wrote he was adding his voice to a "chorus of widespread and bipartisan support" for the bill, which would provide reporters a qualified protection from revealing confidential sources in federal investigations .
Pence has pushed for a shield law for several years with backing from the Radio-Television News Directors Association, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and National Association of Broadcasters. This may be its best chance, given that some issues that had troubled business leaders were taken care of this time around by carve-outs for leaks that would violate existing laws regarding trade secrets or health information
Schwarzenegger has a local rooting interest in the bill since it would have prevented the "unfortunate action" against San Francisco Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, who were also cited by legislators in their reintroduction of the shield law bill May 1.
They are the reporters who were asked to reveal their sources for a series of Major League Baseball steroids articles that made national headlines.
"The San Francisco Chronicle stories had a far-reaching impact on our national consciousness, yet it is clear that without a federal standard for protection of sources, similarly groundbreaking stories will never be heard," he told Pence in the May letter.
