Haven't we had enough of rumors being given validity by virtue of the fact that they have been broadcast on TV?
The liberal media did a HORRIBLE job of reporting on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In terms of upholding journalistic standards and maintaining respect for the truth, the coverage was an unmitigated disaster. It may have played a role in preventing help from reaching hurricane victims.
Now, for nearly a week, we've had to hear nothing else but pure speculation about the findings and possible consequences of Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation into the Valerie Plame case.
One of the most vocal rumormongers has been Chris Matthews. Of course, he's the loudest; but I'm not just talking about the volume of his voice. I'm talking about his tenaciousness in terms of the promotion of rumors. It seems that every chance he gets Chris Matthews has been gossiping about Dick Cheney's resignation.
It's driving me crazy!
It's all speculation! All of it!!!
The libs have whipped themselves into a frenzy and over what???
Mark Levin wrote a great piece for National Review Online about poor, poor Valerie Plame, back in July.
All of what he wrote is still valid.
That might explain why all of it is being ignored by the foaming at the mouth lib media, especially nutjobs like Chris Matthews.
(Excerpts)
Plame started this phony scandal. And so far, she’s gotten away with it. What do I mean? Plame has shown herself to be an extremely capable bureaucratic insider. In fact, we know she's accomplished — she accomplished getting her husband, Joe Wilson, an assignment he desperately wanted: a trip to Niger to investigate a "crazy" report that Saddam Hussein sought yellowcake uranium from Niger (her word, according to the Senate Intelligence Committee, not mine). And she was dogged. She asked not once but twice (the second time in a memo) that her husband get the job. And there's more. The Senate Intelligence Committee investigation also found that a CIA "analyst's notes indicate that a meeting was 'apparently convened by [the former ambassador's] wife who had the idea to dispatch [him] to use his contacts to sort out the Iraq-Niger issues."
Now, Wilson didn't have an intelligence background. Indeed, the committee revealed that Wilson didn't have a "formal" security clearance, but the CIA gave him an "operational clearance." The fact is that there was little to recommend Wilson for the role, other than his wife’s persistence.
Indeed, the committee reported further that some at the CIA "believed that the embassy in Niger had good contacts and would be able to get to the truth of the uranium issue, suggesting a visit from the former ambassador would be redundant...."
Why Wilson?
This is the real scandal. Plame lobbied repeatedly for her husband, and she knew full well that he was hostile to the war in Iraq and the administration's foreign policy. She had to know his politics — and there can no longer be any pretense about him being a nonpartisan diplomat who was merely doing his job. By experience and temperament, Wilson was the wrong man to send to Niger. Plame affirmatively stepped into what she knew might become a very public political controversy, given her husband's predilections (and her own) about that "crazy" report of yellowcake uranium.
...Wilson lied about what he found (or didn’t find) in Niger, he lied about discussing with his CIA debriefers certain documentation and signatures he never saw, and he lied about the CIA telling him of certain classified documents and sources. His
New York Times op-ed was fiction, as was information he later leaked to the
Washington Post, information he gave to other media outlets, and significant aspects of his book.
To this day, despite all this evidence, the media embrace Wilson's story, evidence be damned. The media outlets that were used by Wilson, and published or repeated his lies, are very forgiving. They portray Wilson as he demands to be portrayed, not as he is. And they regurgitate the rhetoric about poor Valerie Plame — a patriot and victim endangered and ruined by politically motivated leaks and a powerful White House bent on discrediting her husband. Even
Meet the Press’s Tim Russert, who fancies himself a hard-nosed interrogator, could not have a done a better job of misinforming the public and smearing the White House — cutting and pasting statements and video clips, and throwing softballs to, of all people, Bill Clinton’s (and now George Soros’s) hatchetman, John Podesta. Plame’s central and aggressive role in promoting her husband, who in turn hoped to damage the credibility of the president in the midst of a war — from her CIA perch — doesn’t even merit a mention.
And in an Alice In Wonderland-like storyline, the same media that demand confidentiality for their sources as a First Amendment right, also demand the identity of Bob Novak’s sources and the names of administration officials who’ve spoken to the media. They cheer the very criminal investigation they once claimed endangered their profession. Meanwhile, who’s under investigation? Not Plame and Wilson, who appear to have hatched this scandal, but those truly victimized by it — administration officials who, it appears, sought to correct Wilson’s lies. Their phone conversations with reporters and e-mails to colleagues are now scrutinized by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald and his grand jury as if they’re war criminals. No wonder Plame is the toast of the Washington establishment and appears in publicity shots in
Vanity Fair with a big grin. Look what she’s wrought.
The truth of the matter clearly makes Plame and Wilson look like vindictive, scheming, partisan hack, publicity hounds. That's why the anti-Bush crowd finds it necessary to disregard the truth and grab at straws.
On last night's Hardball, Chris Matthews started the show with this:
Tonight on
Hardball, we try to figure it out, again, if people in the Bush administration crossed the line, separating political hardball, tough clean Machiavellian politics and criminality. We're led tonight to the cutting edge of the news coverage to that unsavory tandem of questions, "What did the president know and when did he know it?"
Good Lord.
He needs to get a grip. This is NOT Watergate.
Matthews needs to wipe the slobber off of his chin. It's very unbecoming.
