The Bush investigation into how Valerie Plame, the wife of Iraq war critic Joseph C. Wilson IV, was "outed" as a CIA agent to punish him, is starting to look like a mind game being played by the administration with the American public.

President Bush himself signaled in the beginning that he doubted that the perpetrator would ever be found. Nonetheless, after it became obvious that Attorney General John Ashcroft could not oversee a credible investigation, the job was turned over in December to an allegedly independent-minded Department of Justice official, special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald.

Since then there have been puffs of smoke drifting from the affair that included reports of the questioning of senior administration officials, possible grand jury indictments and other signs of an investigation under way, ostensibly free of political manipulation.

The latest development, however, calls all claims of possible administration good faith into question. In contradiction of principles of freedom of the press and in a move that the administration knows will mobilize concerted media opposition, a federal grand jury is now subpoenaing journalists, one from Time magazine, the other from NBC, to try to make the case against whomever Mr. Fitzgerald is allegedly pursuing in the administration.

The maneuver is a trap for the media. The press is absolutely obliged to resist the subpoenas tooth and nail. Media must protect their sources. If they don't, no one will ever feel safe revealing the crimes of government officials to reporters, fearing that the government will eventually get its hands on them in spite of promises of confidentiality.

Unfortunately, if the journalists refuse to testify, the administration will say that it wanted to find and punish the people who broke the law, but couldn't because the media wouldn't cooperate.

That would be the worst of outcomes: Ms. Plame's career as a CIA agent is ended. Her husband is punished by having been unwittingly instrumental in ending his wife's career. The principle of the government punishing a relative of someone it wishes to nail is established. Whoever in the administration broke the law by providing the information to the media about Ms. Plame -- a felony, by the way -- goes unpunished.

Media must hold the line on answering subpoenas that seek to get at sources. The administration must be clear that it cannot get away with failing to find and punish those of its employees who took this action, all the while blaming the situation on media.

Letting the Plame case go unresolved might be a nice try by the Bush administration, but the media and the American public won't buy it.