"Like they're reading a science article written by a journalism major"

The Free Flow of Information Act has just cleared the House by a vote of 398-21, but that doesn't mean President Bush has any interest in signing it. The bill would offer protection of sources and documents to journalists (including professional bloggers) caught up in federal investigations, and could put an end to images of reporters led from court in handcuffs after refusing to testify. The Bush administration sees it as carte blanche to leak government information without penalty, though.

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The Act was cosponsored by Rick Boucher (D-VA) and Mike Pence (R-IN), who are both concerned that no media shield law currently exists at the federal level. More than thirty states have such laws, and Boucher argued after the vote that the very prevalence of such laws showed just important they were. "Such overwhelming support for assuring the confidentiality of journalists' sources at the state level lays bare the glaring lack of similar protections at the federal level," he said.

I don't agree with the logic that if 30 out of 50 states have a law at the state level, that there should be a federal law covering the other 20 states.