Andrew Napolitano: FoxNews.com Reporter The Victim Of A ‘Witch Hunt’

By Alex Weprin 

This week FoxNews.com reporter Jana Winter is in court in Colorado, where she is discussing a story she wrote about the Aurora shooter, James Holmes. Winter was subpoenaed in February over the story, which reveals that Holmes sent his psychiatrist a notebook filled with violent imagery. There is more on the story here.

Now, Andrew Napolitano, a Fox News contributor and former judge, weighs in on the case for FoxNews.com.

Napolitano calls the case a “witch hunt,” and argues that Winter should not have even been subpoenaed.

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All this means is that if judges want to compel reporters to reveal sources, they can, and the so-called shield laws are meaningless. This has become a power play between the court, the State, and the press. What need does the court have now for the identity of my colleague’s sources? She reported truthfully and accurately of a matter of acute public importance. She first informed the world that Mr. Holmes sent a notebook to a mental health professional full of details about how he was going to kill people.

When one weighs the service Ms. Winter performed–the revelation of a truth–against the wishes of the State in wanting to know who spilled the beans, this is not a close call.

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