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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Crimson Ghost who wrote (72467)	2/16/2005 5:35:57 PM
From: J_F_Shepard	Respond to of 89467

Is the NYTimes liberal??

To: Crimson Ghost who wrote (72467)	2/16/2005 5:41:20 PM
From: zonkie	Respond to of 89467

You're right and what is discouraging is less than half the people in the USA are smart enough to understand this. ------------- More on the "liberal media." --------- The LiberalOasis Blog The daily view from the oasis February 16, 2005 PERMALINK PlameGate Exposes The Real Media Bias Themselves (posted Feb. 16 2 AM ET) It’s a good development that a federal appeals court has said the NY Times’ Judith Miller and Time’s Matt Cooper need to answer grand jury questions about PlameGate. While there are more appeals to be had, and the two may opt to go to jail instead giving helpful information, at least there’s some forward movement in this painstakingly slow investigation. But an unfortunate by-product of this ruling will be the high decibel whining from some media types about how this will restrict their rights and quiet confidential sources. Journos have already learned the value of a talking point, parroting the NY Times’ company line, bemoaning the possible jailing of Miller “for an article that was never published”. Howard Kurtz, of the W. Post and CNN, said yesterday that the ruling is “a chilling decision for the press because Judy Miller didn't even write a story about this”. Fox News’ Fred Barnes chimed in: “Miller never wrote anything about the CIA agent … [Patrick Fitzgerald is a] classic runaway prosecutor. He’s not dealing with the heart of the matter, he’s dealing with a capillary.” But the fact that Miller never wrote about Valerie Plame doesn’t make the ruling “chilling” nor does it make Fitzgerald overzealous. It’s wholly irrelevant to the issue at hand. Because this isn’t about punishing reporters for what they write or don’t write. It’s about punishing people in the government who compromised our national security. If Miller has info that can help solve the crime, it doesn’t matter if she used that info in a story or not. She is legally obliged to cough up the info. It’s not Special Counsel Fitzgerald who is pursuing the capillary. It’s folks in the media who are waving a capillary as a red herring to obscure what’s at the heart of the case. But why should we expect any different? If there is any bias in the media, it’s a bias in favor of themselves and their self-importance. PlameGate has been mainly a back-page story in its 18-month life. The mainstream media didn’t bat an eyelash when Plame’s name was revealed. (It was The Nation’s David Corn that first recognized that a crime may have been committed.) And when Dubya was compelled to retain a lawyer to handle the case, there was no Clintonesque feeding frenzy. (John Dean was left to provide insight in an online column.) But now that two reporters face contempt charges, the story is hot copy. The story about the media, not the story about Plame. The vast majority of PlameGate stories since August have been focused on the media’s constitutional rights, while the media still has done little investigative work on the case itself. Of course, these days, the media does little investigative work, period. Today’s W. Post story says: The expressed concern that the decision will drive confidential sources underground -- and leave the public more in the dark about the inner workings of its government. Can the public be any more in the dark about the inner workings of government?! We are bombarded daily by “confidential sources” who are nothing more that Administration puppet masters spoon-feeding reporters who prize their access more than ferreting out truth. It is LiberalOasis’ bet that if there’s anything that real confidential sources are afraid of, it’s not being burned by a reporter. It’s being smeared by unnamed “senior administration officials” with the help of compliant scribes in the Fourth Estate. And maybe, if someone in the Bush Administration actually pays a price for outing Valerie Plame, the real confidential sources in the inner workings of government will poke their heads out. Hopefully, there will be a few reporters who aren’t worried about losing access that will be willing to listen to them. liberaloasis.com