By Bruce B. Brugmann
The U.S. Senate today stalled the federal media shield law. Today’s vote failed to invoke cloture, or the motion to proceed, after receiving only 51 of the necessary 60 votes.
The 43 senators, mostly Republican, who voted against cloture came up with a dreary old stall: they claimed they wanted to amend to allow for increased domestic oil and gas production.
Note to all journalists, particularly those covering the Obama and McCain campaigns: neither candidate was there to vote on this critical bill that would give journalists the right to refuse to disclose information and sources obtained during news gathering process.
The Guardian and the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), the nation’s largest media organization, called on
journalists and public citizens to contact their senators to support the measure. The SPJ release below lists the senators who voted “no” and those who didn’t vote at all.
Click here to read the SPJ article, Shield Law stalls in Senate.