Plame Game, Wycliff edition

Don Wycliff, a reasonable, rational man writes in the ChiTrib:

I am a newsman, have been for more than 30 years. So I have no desire to see this work made harder or more dangerous. More to the point at this stage of my career, I work every day with journalists who do tough, exacting, sometimes dangerous work and more often than not do it very well. I have no desire to see their jobs made tougher and the hazards they face made greater.

But then I come up against what for me is the central question for a journalist in the Plame case: Was "outing" Valerie Plame--in violation of federal law and at real potential risk to her life and health and that of any of those she worked with--such an important public interest that I would have promised some White House political shark to go to jail if necessary for the privilege?

It's not even a close call. I don't think anyone can reasonably argue that the American public is better off for knowing of Plame's CIA connection. (But that never was the point for the alleged leaker in the Bush administration anyway, was it?)

Kudos to Mr. Wycliff.