What's with these special prosecutors anyway? Kenneth Starr is hired to investigate an obscure land deal and ends up impeaching the President for not coming clean about his sex life. And now Patrick Fitzgerald, the US Attorney from Chicago appointed to find out who violated the Intelligence Identities Protection Act by leaking to conservative columnist Robert Novak the identity of a covert CIA employee, ends up sending to prison a New York Times reporter who never wrote about the case.

Actually, for a while it looked as if Fitzgerald was going to use the government's contempt power to force not one, but two journalists "not charged with any wrongdoing," to quote William Safire, of all people, to betray their confidential sources. But at the last minute Time's Matt Cooper, who, like Judith Miller of the Times, seemed ready to go to jail rather than betray a source, got a message from his source, Karl Rove, releasing him from his promise of confidentiality and agreed to appear before the grand jury. Cooper, incidentally, seems to have become a target largely because of an article he (and two other Time reporters) wrote for Time's online edition three days after Novak's scoop, saying that Time had received a leak similar to Novak's. Subsequently Time Inc. editor in chief Norman Pearlstine, over Cooper's objections, agreed to turn over Cooper's notes, which included an e-mail showing that Rove had mentioned Plame, though not by name, and the prosecutor insisted Cooper testify in person.

Since much of the case is still shrouded in secrecy, determining the motives of the prosecutor is a mug's game. But understanding the forces in play and the issues at stake would seem to be critical to anyone who cares about the ability of the press to gather and publish the information a democracy requires.

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