Not against the Bush administration for asking them to protect the corrupt sources who outed Valerie Plame, oh heavens, no. No, the press is retaliating against the public, refusing to report stories by actual whistle-blowers because the Supreme Court wouldn't let them protect Karl Rove.

Doug Clifton, editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, admits that his newspaper has two big stories based on documents leaked from whistle-blowers, but because Judy Miller is not above the law, they refuse to publish them.

"As I write this, two stories of profound importance languish in our hands," Clifton wrote. "The public would be well served to know them, but both are based on documents leaked to us by people who would face deep trouble for having leaked them. Publishing the stories would almost certainly lead to a leak investigation and the ultimate choice: talk or go to jail. Because talking isn't an option and jail is too high a price to pay, these two stories will go untold for now. How many more are out there?"

In other words, the Plain Dealer does not trust the courts to evaluate if the government absolutely must have the information to prosecute a major crime or uproot corruption in the government. Only The Press may decide that, and if frustrated in its desire to be the ultimate arbiter of all secret information, The Press will stop exposing corruption. That'll teach all you nobodies.

Is it worth pointing out that Ohio is the state currently having the biggest GOP corruption scandal, fueled by embarrassing disclosures as more documents keep coming out?

I think it is.

(Via Romenesko.)

Update: Though not from here (no trackback), TalkLeft has picked up this story.