Book Review

Book Review Tangled Webs By James B. Stewart

James B. Stewart is a former Page One editor of The Wall Street Journal and a Pulitzer Prize winner (1988) for his reporting on the stock market crash and insider trading. He has written a thoroughly engaging and meticulously researched book about lying or, as he puts it, "how false statements are undermining America from Martha Stewart to Bernie Madoff." The book is called Tangled Webs.

In between Ms. Stewart and Mr. Madoff are two case studies that every media lawyer should read because both reconstruct how confidential sources were dealt with in the criminal prosecutions of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby and Barry Bonds. Most of us are familiar with the cases, of course, but how the government and counsel for the journalists handled the source issues is fresh, fascinating and instructive. The book lays out the different strategies employed by the reporters and the prosecutors' response to each.

That said, this is not a book about journalism but rather lying under oath, which Stewart contends "clearly poses a threat to the judicial system and the administration of justice... and ultimately to the very moral fabric of the society in which we live." He adds that, "Lying under oath that goes unproven and unpunished breeds a cynicism that undermines the foundations of any society that aspires to fair play and the rule of law. It undermines civilization itself." Stewart's work is a powerful antidote to the oft-heard complaint that these prosecutions (at least Stewart, Libby and Bonds) were unwarranted; that the government didn't indict for the underlying crime but simply pursued a petty charge of lying to the government during the investigation.

A great summer read but important for all seasons.

— Chip Babcock is a partner at Jackson Walker. He can be reached at cbabcock@jw.com.