Remember last week when former Winston-Salem police detective Don Williams blew off the Silk Plant Forest review committee? The Winston-Salem Journal was aghast over Williams leaving the “hard-working citizens’ committee” hanging and urged defense lawyers for Kalvin Michael Smith to “push” for Williams’ testimony at the January hearing calling for new trial.
Well, guess what —- the committee now wants to talk to former Journal reporter Phoebe Zerwick, who reported that Williams didn’t provide Smith’s attorney with crucial documentation in the investigation. Guess what else — the Journal says nyet:
Carl Crothers, the paper’s executive editor, told (committee chairman Guy) Blynn by e-mail that the newspaper remains opposed to the request and that it stands by what Zerwick has reported.
To “allow a reporter to appear voluntarily before a government body to be questioned about her journalistic work, including her unpublished work and her notes, would set a damaging precedent,” Crothers wrote. “It would make it all but impossible for us to later claim a privilege against compelled testimony in this case or any other.
“And in a larger sense, we cannot be viewed as cooperating with the government, i.e., as agents of the government,” he continued. “If that were to happen, our ability to gather information from sources — whose identities we sometimes pledge to protect — would be severely damaged.”
I can’t help but view this as the typical journalistic view of the world, whether it’s review committees or taxpayer-funded public transportation. Everyone else should fall right in line, but heaven forbid they’d be inconvenienced.
