When Jim Taricani of a Providence, R.I., NBC affiliate station granted anonymity to a source in exchange for sealed videotapes showing the city's mayor accepting bribes, Taricani believed he was just doing his job as a reporter.

After a special prosecutor's investigation, $85,000 in fines and six months of house arrest, Taricani can attest that his job is not an easy one.

"It's not an easy business nowadays," said Taricani, who visited campus Wednesday night as part of a panel discussion on the use of confidential sources in journalism sponsored by Marquette's student chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Erik Ugland, assistant professor of broadcast and electronic communication, and Jim Scotton, associate professor of journalism, were also on hand as Taricani told his story and fielded questions from a crowd of 40 to 50 students and faculty.

Taricani said his case stemmed from a 1999 federal investigation of corruption in Providence City Hall, in which an undercover agent obtained video footage of the mayor accepting a $1,000 bribe in exchange for city leases.

The federal judge presiding over the case ordered that the tapes never be released to the public, but many journalists, including Taricani, saw the tapes as a powerful example of corruption that the public needed to see.

When Taricani refused to cooperate, he was held in civil contempt and fined $1,000 per day for 85 days.

Taricani was eventually found guilty of criminal contempt and sentenced to six months of home confinement. Only a heart condition kept him out of prison.

According to Taricani, 31 states currently have shield laws that protect journalists from such prosecution.

Bills for a shield law at the federal level are under consideration in both the House and the Senate, but President Bush has said he will veto such a law, Taricani said.

Taricani said when journalists' rights come under fire, the public suffers.

"We have only one job, which is to inform the public," he said. "The public is the loser if stories can't be done."

Ugland said reporters are not seeking to set themselves above the law in seeking protection.

"They're not seeking special rights for themselves, but rights that enable then to provide information," he said.

Scotton said friction between reporters and courts over anonymous sources is not a new issue.

"Judges are very jealous of (reporters') power in the courtroom" to protect their sources, he said.

Ugland said public disdain for journalists has not helped the situation.

"Reporters have been subpoenaed for decades," he said, but public hostility toward media is currently running high.

Taricani said journalists have themselves to blame for the situation.

"We've brought it upon ourselves," he said, saying entertainment value and profits have supplanted journalistic integrity. "Anything with good video becomes a story.

"It's really damaged our credibility and it doesn't bode well for the future," Taricani said.

Taricani said reporters must get back to the basics to repair their public image.

"We have to start doing really good solid news reporting," he said.

Asked if he would put himself on the line again to protect a source, Taricani answered without hesitation.

"Of course, if I thought the story was important enough," he said. "That's what I do."

This article was published in The Marquette Tribune on September 8, 2005.