Should Shield Law Apply to Joe Muto?

Poynter’s Steve Meyers writes about whether New York’s Shield Law is applicable to Joe Muto…

A key legal issue, Leslie said, is whether Muto is being investigated for breaking the law by taking something from Fox News or for publicizing what he obtained. “If they’re going after him solely because he went to Gawker, then … that’s when the privilege would kick in. The privilege would help him more if what he did wasn’t illegal per se, but they didn’t like that it was publicized.”

So it would be easier for Muto to argue for the protection of information he obtained while at Fox News – say, his knowledge of what it’s like to work with Hannity, or photos of the bathroom – than materials taken from the company without permission, such as videos. The search warrant says that Fox News believes that Muto accessed and edited more than 10 videos like the ones that were posted on Gawker. (Leslie doesn’t know what Muto’s employment agreement specified.)

Even so, Leslie said, “Fox should tread very lightly before saying someone who works for a private company or another organization has a duty to never disclose that.” Employees’ decisions “of when to disclose information is very beneficial to journalists, even Fox News journalists.”