The Markup
Bloomberg Strikes Again
Media Blog
Stephen Spruiell Reporting
07/22 10:35 AM
This Bloomberg story has been making waves, but it shouldn't. The story contains three "big revelations" that, upon further inspection, do not look like big deals at all.
First revelation:
Lewis "Scooter'' Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, told special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald that he first learned from NBC News reporter Tim Russert of the identity of Central Intelligence Agency operative Valerie Plame, the wife of former ambassador and Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson, one person said. Russert has testified before a federal grand jury that he didn't tell Libby of Plame's identity, the person said.
Over at the Corner, John Podhoretz explained that it's unlikely that Scooter Libby perjured himself. Besides, Podhoretz explained, "You can't indict one person for perjury in a two-way conversation if their testimony conflicts — I mean, I guess you could, but you could never make the case stick without independent confirmation."
Second revelation:
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove told Fitzgerald that he first learned the identity of the CIA agent from syndicated columnist Robert Novak, according a person familiar with the matter. Novak, who was first to report Plame's name and connection to Wilson, has given a somewhat different version to the special prosecutor, the person said.
Bloomberg does not tell us how exactly Rove's and Novak's testimony differ, but Media Blog readers know what Bloomberg thinks based on its previous biased reporting. Take a look:
Republican Party Chairman Ken Mehlman said yesterday on "Meet the Press'' that recent newspaper stories "have the effect of exonerating and vindicating Mr. Rove, not implicating him. That information says Karl Rove was not Bob Novak's source, that Novak told Rove, not the other way around, and it says that Karl warned Matt Cooper about Joe Wilson.''
Others see difficulties in these arguments. They note the inherent contradiction between Rove's testimony to the grand jury that he learned Plame's name from Novak and his statement to Novak during the July 8 phone call that "I've heard that, too.''
What contradiction? Rove HAD heard that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA. He had NOT heard that her name Valerie Plame. That's his story, and so far we have no reason to disbelieve him. Please, Bloomberg, produce these "others" you speak of, so that they may be held up to ridicule for not understanding the concept of "contradiction".
This is most likely what Bloomberg means when it reports that Novak gave "a somewhat different version to the special prosecutor." Actually, Novak's version differed from Rove's only in Bloomberg's mythological retelling.
Third revelation:
There also is a discrepancy between accounts given by Rove and Time magazine reporter Mat [sic] Cooper. The White House aide mentioned Wilson's wife — though not by name — in a July 11, 2003, conversation with Cooper, the reporter said. Rove, 55, says that Cooper called him to talk about welfare reform and the Wilson connection was mentioned later, in passing.
Cooper wrote in Time magazine last week that he told the grand jury he never discussed welfare reform with Rove in that call.
Cooper also had trouble remembering whether he learned Valerie Plame's name from Novak's column or Google. His memory isn't that great. Cooper said he was working on a welfare-reform story at the time, and he did write a story on welfare reform two months later. Are we to believe that Rove was going through Matt Cooper's archive, looking for an article so he could lie and say Cooper called to discuss it? That doesn't make sense. And once again, as Podhoretz explained, this kind of discrepancy is not something on which you can hang a perjury charge.
The fourth revelation — mine — is that Bloomberg is crusading on this issue. It's not alone, of course. But Bloomberg's journalism has been sloppier than the others, and its tone more strident. For instance, the latest story contains the following:
Some Bush allies hope that the Fitzgerald investigation, which dominated the news in Washington for the first part of July, will subside as attention shifts to Bush's nomination of Judge John Roberts to fill the first vacancy on the Supreme Court in 11 years.
Like the quote, "Others see difficulties in these arguments," this quote takes a bit of speculation and attributes it to "Bush allies" without getting more specific. It's no wonder the left-wing blogosphere is gobbling this up like its the latest Harry Potter. But it's nothing more than a bag of journalistic dirty tricks.
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