AP Scandal Fallout: Obama Asks for Press Shield Law

Chuck Schumer re-introduced his media-protection bill today at the White House's request, as the administration reels from the AP phone record scandal. The bill, called the Free Flow of Information Act, would make it so that journalists couldn't be compelled to reveal their sources until all other options are exhausted, and even then only if the exposure is in the public interest, the Washington Post reports.

Of course, the bill includes a national security exemption, or at least a 2009 version that passed the Senate Judiciary Committee did, Politico points out, and Eric Holder has argued that the leak the Justice Department was investigating in the AP case had national security implications. But Schumer says that, if nothing else, the bill "would have ensured a fairer, more deliberate process in this case." (More Chuck Schumer stories.)