When I was in jail I could only think about what the average person has to go through - the person who has no power to go to the press or no money to hire a lawyer.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Forty years ago, we were on the tail of the Front Page era. There was a different point of view. Reporters and editors were more forgiving of public people. They didn't think they had to stick someone in jail to make a career.
There is no higher claim to journalistic integrity than going to jail to protect a source.
I know a lot of reporters certainly will go to jail to defend confidential sources. Some have even gone to jail for an issue like this. But I can't say that's the norm.
And understandably so, that when you're in legal jeopardy, you really cannot put yourself in a position to open yourself up to the media.
I mean I've never been thrown in jail in New York or Los Angeles.
I shot a couple of movies in jail, but I was never in jail.
That is my major concern: writers who are in prison for writing.
And if you take the cameras out of the courtroom, then you hide, I think, a certain measure of truth from the public, and I think that's very important for the American public to know.
Prisons and jails, I tend to feel that you're actually safer as a journalist than you might think, certainly more than it appears.
Jail is much easier on people who have nothing.