Does the New York Times have to reveal its source for a story that wrongly alleged former Alabama basketball player Kai Spears was at the scene of a murder?

A federal judge is asking the Alabama Supreme Court to decide if the state’s shield law protects reporters who publish stories online.

“The question the judge wants answered is, does an online publication fall under the privilege?” Evans Bailey, general counsel for the Alabama Press Association, told AL.com . “Because the privilege talks about newspaper, radio broadcasts, television broadcasts. It doesn’t specifically say online or blogs or whatever.”

Spears sued the Times in 2023 after reporter Billy Witz published an article that cited an unnamed source who named Spears as a passenger in the car that delivered the gun used i

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