Judge Bars N.Y. Times in Libel Defense

[DoYouEverWonder]

November 18, 2006

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- A federal judge has ruled The New York Times may not rely on information from a columnist's confidential sources in its defense against a libel lawsuit filed over the newspaper's coverage of the 2001 anthrax attacks.

Former Army scientist Steven Hatfill, once identified by authorities as a "person of interest" in the anthrax mailings that killed five people in late 2001, is suing the Times for libel for a series of articles written by columnist Nicholas Kristof.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Liam O'Grady issued the ruling Friday as a sanction against the newspaper for refusing to disclose the identities of two confidential FBI sources used by Kristof. O'Grady had earlier ruled that Hatfill needed "an opportunity to question the confidential sources and determine if Mr. Kristof accurately reported information the sources provided."

The Times had cited FBI sources in reporting Hatfill was one of a limited number of people with the access and technical expertise to manufacture the anthrax and that he failed lie-detector tests. Hatfill was a physician and bioterrorism expert who worked at the Army's infectious disease laboratory at Fort Detrick, Md., in the late 1990s.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-anthrax-hatfill,0,4152323.story?coll=sns-ap-nation-headlines

If you're going to accuse someone of committing serious crimes, your sources better be willing to give up their anonymity.

[William769]

1. I hope the judge keeps the N.Y. Times feet to the fire.

[bullimiami]

2. but this was a smear campaign in collusion with the government.

the nyt knew what they were doing just like when they let judy beat the lying drums of war on their front pages.

i hope it costs them a bundle. the only thing they care about is money.

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. I'd like to know who their FBI sources were

that smeared Hatfield. I wouldn't be surprised if Hatfield's 'friend' Jerome Hauer was in the middle of this.

[stepnw1f]

4. Good.... Serves Them Right for Peddling Judith Miller's War Propaganda

that was criminal!

[stillcool]

5. turn, turn, turn.....

"You went into jail in the summer. It is fall now. You will have stories to cover--Iraqi elections and suicide bombers, biological threats and the Iranian nuclear program. Out West, where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning. They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them. Come back to work---and life. Until then, you will remain in my thoughts and prayers."