Judge May Send FoxNews Reporter to Jail for Doing Her Job

I don't think she'll go to jail because the specific Colorado press shield law seems to provide her with the color of legality. But it is threatened.

She's the reporter who revealed the cops had been alerted to the danger posed by the Aurora shooter, James Holmes, and failed to follow up.

Here's a digest of the press shield law:

Section (3) of The Colorado Press Shield Law requires that the news information subpoenaed must be directly relevant to a substantial issue involved in the proceeding, that it cannot be obtained by any other reasonable means, and that a strong interest of the party seeking to subpoena the newsperson outweighs the interests under the first amendment to the United States constitution of such newsperson in not responding to a subpoena and of the general public in receiving news information.

I can't see how she can possibly lose, assuming we still have law and logic in this country (a dicey proposition at best). This is the paradigmatic sort of information that the government will never voluntarily disclose, because it's embarrassing to the government. And yet is is plainly highly newsworthy and directly linked to a major policy question being voted on this week.

But I bet she will lose anyway. Because: We are quickly become the Party of Rulership and the Party of the Ruled, and the party of rulership protects itself, and constantly asserts its domination over the party of the ruled.

Here's something that's going to rock your world and not in a good way. In an affidavit, the reporter, Jane Winters, reveals that she's being threatened by James Holmes' supporters.

In addition to substantially impairing, and potentially destroying, my ability to do my job, the subpoena also causes other hardships.

I am very concerned that being targeted by Holmes in this way may lead to serious harm against me and my family. I read a court filing that stated that Holmes has many supporters who have been harassing the families of victims of his attack. I have also already been harassed, even without stepping foot in Colorado. I have been the subject of numerous threatening Internet postings, including one posted just yesterday that, although it does not specifically refer to the Holmes case, states "May you be one of the first killed when the next Civil War comes." Other posts on websites for Holmes' supporters call for me to be "reprimanded" and publish my contact details. On February 24, 2013, a blog entry was posted on a website called [redacted], which contained personal photographs of myself, my father, my mother (who passed away some time ago), as well as a scary degree of detail about our personal lives.

I honestly don't know why we don't get serious about these maniacs and psychopaths. There are laws they can be charged under. Further, they need, as a general matter, some contact with The System.

Your have the right to be a lunatic, but you don't have the right to threaten other people.

The sort of person who identifies himself as a political supporter of James Holmes is a ticking time bomb.

posted by Ace at 04:49 PM

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