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News-Source Privilege In Libel Cases: A Critical Analysis, David Joseph Smith

Washington Law Review

This comment first examines the recent cases in which a libel plaintiff was impeded by the use of a qualified privilege from obtaining the identity of news sources behind an allegedly defamatory story. It next discusses the historical development of the constitutional news-source privilege and concludes that neither traditional first amendment press clause doctrine nor the United States Supreme Court's decision in Branzburg v. Hayes is authority for such a privilege. This comment then points out that courts which nonetheless recognize a constitutional news-source privilege in civil cases have given the same protection to all sources, regardless of the publication's …