Newspaper pressure, party politics may spell trouble for "shield law"

OLYMPIA — Legislation to protect journalists from having to disclose confidential sources likely won't get a vote in the state Senate this year, in part because of what lawmakers called heavy-handed tactics by the newspaper industry's lobbyist and sharply critical editorials.

"They beat the hell out of us in editorial pages across the state," Sen. Erik Poulsen, D-Seattle, said Thursday evening. "Before we had a chance to look at the substance of the bill, they were declaring us obstructionists."

There are other reasons, too, that the so-called reporter's shield law appeared dead Thursday, a week before the legislative session is set to end. Corporate interests, primarily an insurance company, oppose the bill, as well as defense attorneys and some prosecutors.

A few Democrats don't want to give a victory to Republican Attorney General Rob McKenna, who sponsored the bill. Some senators want the bill to provide protection for confidential documents as well as human sources, and some see no need for it.

House Bill 2452 would allow reporters to protect the name of a confidential source in court, using the same sort of absolute privilege from testimony given to spouses, attorneys and clergy.

Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, said the Senate isn't likely to vote on the bill before the deadline for action this afternoon. The bill passed the House Feb. 14 on an 87-11 vote.

McKenna said the state's media companies asked him to sponsor the bill.

"This is not McKenna's bill," he said. "This is a bill that is very important to the press in the state and for very good reason."

But those media forces may have done it in.

"Some editors have been very heavy-handed," said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Adam Kline, D-Seattle. He is one of the leading advocates for the bill.

He thinks there are enough votes in the Senate to pass the bill, but he cannot get the Democratic leadership to allow the vote.

The lobbyist for the newspaper publishers said it was necessary to get tough to try to save the bill.

"It was becoming pretty clear some senators were hunkering down to try to do it in," said Rowland Thompson, executive director of the Allied Daily Newspapers.

Poulsen complained he was criticized in the West Seattle Herald after Thompson told the editor that Poulsen opposed the bill because McKenna is a Republican.

Thompson said that's what other senators had told him.

Poulsen said he opposes the bill because it should protect confidential documents as well as sources. He said there were two Democratic senators who were "questioning the politics of advancing the AG's political career," but he wouldn't say who.

According to Majority Leader Brown, Thompson told Senate Floor Leader Tracey Eide, D-Federal Way, that if the bill didn't get a vote, local papers would blame her.

Eide said she didn't want to talk about her conversation with Thompson, whom she described as a friend.

Thompson said he told Eide that as floor leader she has the power to schedule bills. If the bill died, he told her, when she went to newspaper editorial boards to talk about Democrats' accomplishments this session, "My guess is they'll want to talk about this and this may be the first question."

One of the editorials cited by senators was in The Olympian. It said Democrats were "messing around" with the bill and some were trying to keep a victory from McKenna.

"These tactics are reprehensible," the paper wrote.

"You don't threaten and insult the party in power and get your bill passed," Poulsen said.

David Postman: 360-943-9882