Are subpoena wins a pyrrhic victory for journalists?
[Guild Reporter] Federal subpoenas of four U.S. journalists in two separate cases were dropped abruptly in recent weeks, averting courtroom confrontations over reporters’ rights to maintain the confidentiality of their sources. But as a fifth journalist remained behind bars, setting a modern-day record for such incarcerations, the hollowing out of the news industry such actions are intended to protect continued without faltering. Federal prosecutors sent a valentine to San Francisco Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, announcing Feb. 14 that they had reached a plea agreement with the lawyer who had provided the duo with transcripts of grand jury proceedings. Fainaru-Wada and Williams, who had written extensively on a steroids scandal involving professional athletes, were courting prison sentences of up to 18 months for refusing to identify their source. Earlier, on Jan. 29, the U.S. Army ended a similar effort to subpoena freelance reporter Sarah Olson and Honolul
