Reporting Redux

I hadn't previously seen this week-old Michael Kinsley Op-Ed in the Washington Post, but he succinctly puts his finger on what bothers me about the stance of Judith Miller and Matt Cooper regarding the Plame leak case:

"The leak wasn't merely connected to the crime. The leak was the crime. 'Outing' an intelligence agent is illegal."

Exactly. It's as if a reporter protested that she couldn't testify about a robbery she witnessed because the perpetrator had told her that he was robbing on deep background.

Of course, this fiasco also helps Miller get the "Ms. First Amendment" tee shirt rather than being continuallly pilloried for her heinous pre-war "reporting." That's a real travesty of justice.