Here are some of the musings from the opinion and others involved in the Pentagon Papers case:
From Justice Stewart's opinion:
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For when everything is classified, then nothing is classified, and the system becomes one to be disregarded by the cynical or the careless, and to be manipulated by those intent on self protection or self-promotion. I should suppose, in short, that the hallmark of a truly effective internal security system would be the maximum possible disclosure, recognizing that secrecy can best be preserved only when credibility is truly maintained.
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From Solicitor General Erwin Griswold (the Governments Lawyer before the SCOTUS) in an op-ed 20plus years after the case was decided:
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It quickly becomes apparent to any person who has consideration experience with classified material that there is massive overclassification and that the principal concern of the classifiers is not with national security, but rather with governmental embarrassment of one sort or another.
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IMHO..it is essentially a duty and responsibility of "journalists" to report things and make the public aware of them. Fake national security and government official embarrassment BE DAMNED.
Here is the standard opined that would permit the government from overcoming the the restrictions it can place on speech with regards to 'classified material:'
Justice Stewart wrote:
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disclosure must “surely result in direct, immediate, and irreparable harm to our Nation, or its people
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Just felt like reviewing some old schooling and fascination I had with some key Supreme Court decisions, and this thread turned my wheels in that direction.
-bear