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10 Comm/Ent L.J. 623 (1987-1988)
Stone Got Caught between a Rock and a Hard Place: Grand Juries' Power to Subpoena Outtakes That Reveal Confidential News Sources

handle is hein.journals/hascom10 and id is 645 raw text is: Stone Got Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Grand Juries' Power to Subpoena Outtakes That Reveal Confidential News Sources by MARTY KASSMAN* Introduction Bradley M. Stone is a Detroit television journalist who spent a few hours in the Wayne County (Michigan) Jail in Septem- ber, 1986. He was not on assignment; rather, he was sent there by a state judge for refusing to comply with the judge's order to turn over a short segment of videotape to a grand jury. Stone refused because the videotape might have revealed the identi- ties of confidential sources of information. Stone is no longer behind bars, and it now appears that he will be able to keep his videotape and avoid returning to jail.1 His case, however, raises questions of vital concern to journalists and to their viewers, listeners, readers and news sources. The purpose of this note is to examine what protection the United States Constitution affords to a journalist who is or- dered by a grand jury to provide unpublished information which would compromise confidential sources, particularly where, as in Stone's case, the journalist is not alleged to have participated in or witnessed criminal activity. The note will review the four opinions written in the key case on constitutional protection of news sources, Branzburg v. Hayes,2 and how those opinions have been received and inter- preted in the decade-and-one-half since they were released. It will discuss how the law of reporter's privilege3 has developed * B.S., Arkansas State University, 1982; Member, Third Year Class. The author was a television and radio journalist before entering law school. 1. For details of Stone's case, see infra notes 124-84 and accompanying text. 2. 408 U.S. 665 (1972). 3. The meaning of the term reporter's privilege in this note comports gener- ally with the definition of newsman's privilege in BLACK'S LAW DICTIONARY 940 (5th ed. 1979): The alleged constitutional right (freedom of speech and press) of a newsman to refuse to disclose the sources of his information. Reporter's privilege,