Anonymity of press sources - the greater good?

New York Times reporter Judith Miller is in jail for not giving up her source.

"Miller talked to sources about the leak, but never wrote a news story about the CIA operative. By the time she was ushered off to jail, there seemed little need for her testimony because at least one, and likely both reporters who actually did write stories naming Plame had already agreed to talk.

Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper also faced the grim prospect of jail on Wednesday. But his employer had already ignominiously folded and given notes identifying his source to Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. Then Cooper's source released him from his promise of confidentiality, freeing him to testify before the grand jury.

Syndicated columnist Robert Novak also identified Plame in print. He has refused to say whether he gave up his confidential source to Fitzgerald, but it's telling that he was not facing jail Wednesday along with Miller and Cooper."