Kirtley Discusses Whether LA Times Should Release Obama Video

Prof. Jane Kirtley was quoted in a story in the Los Angeles Times, discussing whether the newspaper should accede to demands of the McCain-Palin campaign and violate its promise of confidentiality to the source of controversial video of a 2003 event at which Barack Obama "paid tribute" to a Palestinian scholar. Kirtley noted that the Supreme Court has ruled that the First Amendment does not prohibit sources from suing the press for breaking similar promises, but that journalists should strive to put source material into the public domain. "In this increasingly divided, partisan world, there are fewer people, sadly, who will take a reporter's word for it," she said.