Jailing the messenger

In a recent issue of the CIA Studies In Intelligence James B. Bruce proposes that media outlets who publish classified material be subject to prosecution under espionage laws. MSNBC has written an article about this paper, and how it could effect the state of public discourse in our country. Dave Farber's IP List has hosted an excellent discussion on this issue. You can find the articles here, here, and here. Here is a quote from the MSNBC article:

The proposal to treat leaks of classified information as a criminal act is, in itself, is not unusual or particularly controversial. Virtually every president, at one time or another, demands that his cabinet investigate the source of particular leaks to the media — usually those that prove politically embarrassing, but also some which are judged to be potential violations of the Espionage Act of 1917. But Bruce’s memorandum goes far beyond that, proposing to target the media itself, which Bruce sees as part of an “unholy alliance” of officials with security clearances and their journalist accomplices. “That’s a dramatic change,” says Tom Rosenstiel, a former Newsweek and Los Angeles Times correspondent who is now vice president of the Committee of Concerned Journalists. “Let’s be blunt. These guys really don’t believe in the 1st Amendment,” he says. “They believe in secrecy, not sunshine, they believe in control, not pluralism. They want to intimidate and chill the press, and they want to criminalize the free flow of discussion, and they want to use September 11 as the lever to do this.”