Confidentially

Congressman Rick Boucher represents a district in Virginia but not the one I am in. He is, I think, the best Congressman the state has.

While there are muckraking writers who deserve to be challenged (I am thinking of the stories made up about entertainers), I believe that is best handled with civil suits.

The idea of a being hauled before a judge and ordered to give up my sources on a story where I had to quote "officials" is chilling. When the entity seeking the information is the government and not an individual, it is beyond chilling. It definitely is not what I expect to see in a free and open government.

I try at all times to be honest and diligent in the things I write, but I do worry that something I write will be misconstrued or challenged. Things are often misread; people generally read what they want to into the things they see.

One civil case I've been following and writing about for a year in particular has fretted me lately. I know one side sees all coverage about its traumas in court to be negative press and not objective reporting and there's nothing I can do about that.

But that's not going to get me in front of a judge. I am not an investigative reporter and I don't write national news. Sometimes I am quite glad of that.

I think Virginia, by the way, is one of the states that doesn't have a statute that protects reporters. At least that is what I've been told. There may be common law protections, but nothing on the books.