The Wall Street Journal editors salute Robert Novak, a titan of political journalism for over 50 years, upon his passing last week. Of Novak's substantial caliber there is no doubt. I found him, in a few encounters, honest and gracious, always with something useful to say. His major issue blind spot was antipathy to Israel. But he also exhibited a common deformation professionelle for reporters: an abiding belief in the absolute--no exceptions--sanctity of press privilege to guard sources.
It was this faith that led Novak to remain silent after he published a column outing CIA desk jockey Valerie Plame and triggering an investigation into who disclosed her name to Novak. He said nothing, while the Bush administration was nearly destroyed during wartime--with many senior officials devoting countless hours to dealing with this sideshow, hours better devoted to figuring out how best to fight several wars. He stayed silent as Scooter Libby was indicted, convicted and disbarred for allegedly perjuring himself about having knowledge of the leaker (he did not). He stayed silent all through this, knowing that former Colin Powell deputy at State, inveterate gossip Richard Armitage, had accidentally leaked Plame's name to Novak.
To be sure, there are serious arguments supporting a broad press privilege, but no privilege should be absolute. At minimum, obstructing a criminal investigation is hard to countenance. Will sources refuse to talk to the Robert Novaks of the world? Some, surely; others, perhaps less frequently and more guardedly. But this seems to me an acceptable price to pay for preventing abuse of an absolute power, leading in the Pale case to the destruction of one man's reputation and loss of professional livelihood.
Novak, a staunch conservative Republican, did not do this out of malice, but out of loyalty above all to professional duty as he understood it. Purism comes at a high price, and it was not Novak who paid it. That said, he was a formidable force in Washington journalism, one of the very finest of his craft in the postwar period.
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