I’ve got to say that I essentially agree with Matt Yglesias here that any sort of conclusion drawn from the relatively harsh questioning (well, at least compared to the usual game of pattycake) is premature. Just in my limited experience of following the press and its interactions with the White House, its clear we’ve been here before. The press seemingly wakes up out of its slumber, only to lose interest the next day (Hurricane? Shark Attack? Missing White Woman?). To think that the same press corps who laughed Ari Fleischer out of the room and then ignored the Rove story for days on end is going to suddenly do something like commit an act of journalism is kind of like the put-upon parent thinking that this time their kid is going to kick his drug habit.
They just do not care. They do not care about anything more than getting their names up in lights and getting precious facetime in front of the nearest camera – nothing more. Folks (like many Democrats) who simply believe the press is sitting around and waiting for just an opening to probe the White House with are living in Fantasyland.
I recently read Howard Kurtz’s Spin Cycle, about the Clinton administration and its interactions with the press gallery, and its amazing that the media was so interested in arcane campaign finance law to the point of hounding member after member of the Clinton administration over the silliest things. You’ve got to wonder – why?
I believe that about half of the problem is the media’s antagonistic attitude towards Democrats, while the bulk of it can be attributed to the right realizing that only spoonfeeding can make the media cover what you need them to cover. They do this somewhat less now because they simply own so many media outlets that their inane chattering becomes a steady drumbeat in the noisemaking apparatus. A fart heard on Instapundit, Newsmax or a local radio show is quickly amplified on Limbaugh and promoted to Fox whereby its mainstreamed into the rest of the press. Still, the RNC and the various other Republican nonprofits have made a cottage industry over mulching opposition research and dripping it out in a sustained narrative to the media.
The only way we on the left are going to be able to get the press to work on the stuff we want them to is by doing a similar job of making things ready for them to cover. I have seen some signs of improvement, especially as the Dean folks have begun to take the reigns of the DNC, but we’ve still got a long way to go.
It seems to me that the people the press should be hounding are Robert Novak, Judith Miller and the New York Times. After all, it was Novak who published Plame’s name. They seem to be the ones who are really hiding something, not Karl Rove.
Further, both Clifford May and Andrea Mitchell have admitted to knowing – before Novak published his article – that Joseph Wilson and Valerie Plame were husband and wife, and that Plame worked for the CIA.
In fact, today’s New York Times reports, “There has been some dispute, moreover, about just how secret a secret agent Ms. Wilson was. ‘She had a desk job in Langley,’ said Ms. Toensing, who also signed the supporting brief in the appeals court, referring to the C.I.A.’s headquarters. ‘When you want someone in deep cover, they don’t go back and forth to Langley.’”
Or, I should note, have their photo published twice in Vanity Fair magazine.
Oliver,
“The only way we on the left are going to be able to get the press to work on the stuff we want them to is by doing a similar job of making things ready for them to cover.”
While this might certainly help, there is plenty of material right now for them to cover.
But why should the press respond to it when our own representatives won’t?
Blood is in the water ( its a complete hemorrhage. in fact, Bushco is worthless and failing EVERYTHING.. ) and our Demo leadership is asleep instead of outraged…cautious instead confrontational.
What ? do you expect the Press to hunt down our prey for us? All while Liberman, Biden, Obama, Pelosi, ….and every other mother f*cker keeps their worthless f*cking mouths shut??
GOP leadership is corrupt…and ours is worthless…and the Press is just there for the paycheck.
“Or, I should note, have their photo published twice in Vanity Fair magazine.”
What does her allowing her photo to be published a year AFTER her cover had been blown have to do with anything? Sheesh, the pretzels you all need to twist in order to make excuses for Rove just continue…
Likewise the fact that someone in the white house had also leaked the info to May and Mitchell doesn’t change things, in fact it makes it look more like a calculated effort.
Also, if it was common knowledge that Wilson and Plame were married then Rove saying “his wife is a CIA operative” is no different from him saying “Valerie Plame is a CIA operative”, making his defense even flimsier.
When are all you right wingers going to wake up from your Bush supporting nightmare and recognize how much it has required you to toss any ability for logical thinking?
Mike did not indicate that anybody in the White House leaked the information to May or Mitchell. Additionally, I can find nowhere that May or Mitchell indicated that they knew this information as a result of any leak from the White House.
ewk, I fully understand what the early “reports” said. I was simply pointing out that in regards to May and Mitchell, that it is not stated nor do they state that they knew this information as a result of a leak from the White House. You may be willing to make that assumption. I am not.
The existence of an investigation is not proof of a crime. The prosecutor is doing his job, and I, for one, am content to await his conclusions, and let the system of justice work accordingly. If a crime has been committed, then the appropriate punishment should be meted out. If a crime has not been committed, a lot of people will be eating a lot of crow for a long long time.
JD, the early reports were that the leak had gone to 4 or 5 reporters in addition to Novak: Cooper, Miller, May, Mitchell do the math…
This is also part of the right-wing spin, “there was no secret, everyone knew she was an agent”
Which is pretty absurd, that means the CIA got upset and demanded an investigation just because they wanted to score political points? The CIA is now part of the vast left wing conspiracy? Fitzgerald, a republican prosecutor noted for being a no-nonsense guy spends 2 years and goes to the Supreme Court over reporters shielding sources for something that wasn’t a crime?
You really think he would spend two years on this without having determined that she was covert and that exposing her was a crime? That is a pretty basic question that would have been figured out fairly early on and he wouldn’t have kept going spending a lot of money and time if the answer was that no crime had been committed.