With McClusky gone the next few days, I’ll do my best to keep things updated. Sorry, no video though … look for more later in the week. Here’s something I’ve noticed in the past week: TV reporters are a bunch of source-burning sellouts. There seem to be two high-profile examples of this:

1. The Washington Post, and then everyone else, is reporting that Fox News chief political correspondent Carl Cameron confirmed that Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., leaked classified information about the eve of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Cameron denies the charge that coughed up Shelby’s name, while Shelby denies he leaked anything. Oddly, it was CNN who first reported the leak, which said Arabic messages that said “the match begins tomorrow” and “tomorrow is zero day” were intercepted on Sept. 10, but not translated until Sept. 12. Fox News did not report the leak, which makes Cameron’s flipflop even worse — reporters never discuss unpublished news.

2. It was reported in recent days that Tim Russert, of “Meet the Press,” testified before a grand jury about leaks in the Intimigate/Plame Affair. Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper refused testify, and is now facing contempt charges that could land him in jail.

Here’s the problem with disclosing sources: nobody will ever talk again. Everybody will be afraid to come forward with critical information, because they cannot trust reporters to put their careers on the line to defend their word. Now, in both of these cases, I’d be less than honest if I didn’t admit I enjoyed seeing Shelby grilled and investigators moving closer to disclosing who leaked Plame’s name as payback for Joe Wilson’s troublesome findings. But this is a case where consistency is demanded over political gain. The federal government, regardless of who is in charge, is a powerful body with incredible potential for abuse. If people cannot come forward to the media with their concerns, that abuse moves a step closer to going unchecked.

It’s my belief that print reporters understand this, and hold their relationships with sources as sacred. Thanks to Russert and Cooper, I’m not sure the same can be said for television reporters/pundits, which is of particular concern because recent studies have found television news to have the biggest increase in audience over the past year. The lines between journalist and entertainer are being blurred — at a potentially great cost.

P.S. If a part-time sports reporter in Minnesota can withstand a court order to reveal sources, the same should be expected of the national media.