Over the weekend I watched the movie, “Nothing but the Truth.” It’s a year old, but not that many people saw it, and it’s an interesting film. A political film. I often don’t care for the politics of Hollywood movies, and I didn’t for this one, either.

“Nothing but the Truth” is a fictionalization of the case of journalist Judith Miller and CIA operative Valerie Plame. In real life, Plame’s husband, Joseph Wilson, went to the African nation of Niger to investigate a reason for attacking Iraq, didn’t find that reason, and later told this story publicly, saying the White House had lied about the reason for going to war. A White House source retaliated against Wilson by leaking a story to the reporter, Miller, that Wilson’s wife, Plame, was a CIA agent, wrecking the wife’s career. Miller broke no law by outing a CIA agent, but her source did, and the Justice Department demanded that Miller identify him. She wouldn’t, and spent 85 days in jail.

The movie also concerns a report that undermines the government's rationale for starting a war, except that the war is against Venezuela and the report has been written by a CIA agent played by Vera Farmiga. A newspaper reporter played by Kate Beckinsale is tipped off about this report by a secret source, gets two confirmations, and her newspaper publishes her story. It names the CIA agent, thereby wrecking the agent’s career. The government then comes after the reporter to name the source, she refuses, and she goes to jail for a year.

Most of the movie is about the Beckinsale character, and it wants to audience to be sympathetic to her. She is in the same line of work as I have been in for more than 30 years, but I found myself sympathizing with the CIA agent instead. I thought the newspaper reporter was a fool.

Here’s why. Though it was important for the reporter to tell the public about the secret report—because it was evidence that the President had lied to the American people about a war—there was no need to “out” the CIA agent. The reporter did it because she could, and because it added credibility to the story. But it was not necessary, and was at tremendous cost to the agent, who had done nothing wrong, and her family. The reporter didn’t give a rip about that.

Secondly, though it is illegal for a federal employee to reveal the identity of a covert CIA agent, it turns out in the movie’s end that the source is not anyone who can be prosecuted, fired or be punished really at all. The reporter is not protecting the source from some disastrous consequence. Indeed, in the movie, the disastrous consequences come from Beckinsale having so much “integrity.”

In the case as outlined by this movie, I would have broken the promise and disclosed the name to the judge.