The need for creating a federal press shield law By James Srodes

As Norman Pearlstine argues in "Off the Record: The Press, the Government, and the War over Anonymous Sources," the dependence of reporters on confidential purveyors of information has now collided with heightened government efforts to limit the public's right to know. Important matters are now being masked as national security issues, which really are uncomfortable political controversies.

Mr. Pearlstine is one of the true stars of American journalism, make no mistake about that. Trained in the law (University of Pennsylvania), he climbed the ladder of local and then national publications, most notably rising to executive editor posts at the Wall Street Journal and Forbes magazine, and ending up with an 11-year stint as editor in chief of Time Inc., the 154 magazine division of Time Warner Inc. Most of the Pulitzer-type awards available to financial journalists already line his mantle. READ MORE...