First, Eric Holder did not ultimately compel Risen to name his source.
Second, this wasn't a corruption or torture report, and the stakes weren't "embarrassment". The CIA turned a Russian nuclear engineer who fed to Iran flawed plans for the electrical firing mechanism for a nuclear explosive device. Risen learned about that from that Russian engineer's CIA handler, and after the NYT spiked a story he wrote about it, wrote a chapter a book about it.
It wasn't necessary to ultimately compel Risen to have a chilling effect on journalism, much like it wasn't necessary to ultimately imprison Thomas Drake for the rest of his life to have a chilling effect on IC employees who seek to expose waste, fraud, and abuse.
I agree with your perspective on the wisdom of Risen's reporting, but still think we should celebrate the heroic act of journalists protecting their sources even when they're on the hot-seat.
One doesn't necessarily have to be indicted or prosecuted for people to feel as though their rights are threatened. Needlessly forceful/aggressive FBI raids (Binney), wiretapping press organizations (AP), endless secret grand juries (WL), and border searches (Poitras) are all examples of the many ways USG has intimidated actual and potential whistleblowers and reporters.
>Second, this wasn't a corruption or torture report,
where nobody has been punished too despite the severity of the crimes.
>The CIA turned a Russian nuclear engineer who fed to Iran flawed plans for the electrical firing mechanism for a nuclear explosive device.
sounds like that story where "flawed" plans happened to be a great help to Iran nuclear bomb program and allowed for significant progress in the program. One can't not to wonder whether the "flaws" were real, just insufficient, flaws or just a cover up, and the real goal was to actually sell the info and speed up the Iranian program. With CIA and Russian double-agents you would never know. One would say "follow the money" but it is obviously impossible here. So the only thing left is just what the reporters do - shed the light. Undermining NPT - that is what actually happened, under whatever premises or covers - is among the largest threats to the world (incl. obviously US) security. Be it due to ineptitude or evil will - without bringing it to light there is absolutely nothing to prevent such things from happening again. This check on the rest of the powers is exactly what the "4th branch of power" exists for, and that is exactly why the rest of the powers so fighting it.
Second, this wasn't a corruption or torture report, and the stakes weren't "embarrassment". The CIA turned a Russian nuclear engineer who fed to Iran flawed plans for the electrical firing mechanism for a nuclear explosive device. Risen learned about that from that Russian engineer's CIA handler, and after the NYT spiked a story he wrote about it, wrote a chapter a book about it.