Yikes

Thomas Drake, a former National Security Agency employee with a top secret clearance, has been indicted for passing classified material to Siobhan Gorman, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal (though she worked for the Baltimore Sun at the time of the leaks), who also worked for National Journal, the magazine I was at before coming to Government Executive. As a reporter covering government, it's an interesting situation to consider. I've always thought that more responsive, relaxed media policies would do agencies a lot of good: they'd make complicated issues clearer, they'd appear more responsive to the public, and they'd reduce frustration on the part of reporters who are sick of "no comments" and staff who want to get important stories out to the public. It'd be a shame if this lead to a crackdown or a backing away of agencies from the media. The law is the law, of course, no denying that. But there are more ways than deterrence and prosecution to discourage people from breaking it.