The argument against ever outing sources is instrumental. 
    Insiders won't leak to the press if they can't rely on a 
    reporter's pledge of confidentiality, the argument goes, 
    and so the public's interest in discovering wrongdoing 
    ultimately won't be served. This is mostly humbug. As 
    most modern presidents have discovered, leakers are a 
    hardy breed. They act from various motives, of which 
    unalloyed public-spiritedness is probably the rarest. 
    Outing the Plame leakers wouldn't undermine the use of 
    confidential sources. It would merely put leakers on 
    notice that their right to lie and manipulate the press 
    is not absolute and not sacred.