A JOURNALIST IS IMPRISONED FOR WITHHOLDING A SOURCE IN NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH
In 2005, New York Times journalist Judith Miller spent 85 days in jail for contempt of court–refusing to disclose who outed Valery Plame as a CIA agent. In an effort to dramatize the issue, Nothing But the Truth focuses on journalist Rachel Armstrong (played by Kate Beckinsale), who remains in jail for nearly a year for contempt of court and receives a two-year prison sentence for obstruction of justice for failing to disclose her source in a Capitol Sun-Times news story that she authors in which Erica Van Doren (played by Vera Farmiga) is identified as a CIA agent whose husband Oscar (played by Jamey Sheridan) wrote an article disputing intelligence that the Venezuelan government was behind a plot to assassinate the president of the United States, who in turn ordered an airstrike on the country. Quickly arrested and brought before a federal court by independent prosecutor Patton Dubois (played by Matt Dillon), Rachel holds out steadfastly despite stress in jail, her husband’s infidelity, pressure from the government and even her own attorney, and loss of her court case in the Supreme Court, where she is represented by Alan Burnside (played by Alan Alda). Burnside’s eloquent argument, noting that journalists have First Amendment protections written into the law of 49 states, is that sources of information that keep government accountable will dry up when journalists are compelled to disclose their sources, thus undermining the fundamental democratic principle of accountability of rulers to the ruled. Her case loses when the court decides 5-4 that national security trumps the First Amendment. Van Doren, it should be noted, is also persecuted. Two clues of the identity of Rachel’s source are cleverly inserted into the narrative, but most filmviewers will be surprised—and in full agreement with Rachel’s principled stand–when that source is revealed in the final frames of the film. Rod Lurie, who directed and wrote the screenplay of For Nothing But the Truth, has been nominated for a Political Film Society award for best film raising consciousness about the need for greater democracy. MH