More News Cataloging
OK, so let me see if I get this straight:
Former Ambassador, Joe Wilson, criticizes the Bush administration over the Iraq war. In response, the administartion declassifies portions of a secret National Intelligence Estimate, which provides (or so they say, anyway) historical context for why we went into Iraq. The President, via the Vice President, authorizes Lewis "Scooter" Libby to release this newly declassified information to Judith Miller of the New York Times. This being the same Scooter Libby who is accused of leaking the name of a CIA agent, Valerie Plame, to the same Judith Miller of the (same) New York Times.
What a fantastic opportunity to news catalog: we can write about this story and attribute signifigance to it by mentioning it along side a story that's already been established as important (the Valerie Plame leak), and it will wind up on the front page of most major newspapers.
Here's how we do it: First, we describe the facts of the story. Then, we summarize the facts of the Valerie Plame story, pointing out that many of the same people are involved. Then, in paragraph SEVEN, we say this:
The court documents did not say that Bush or Cheney authorized Libby to disclose Plame's identity.
After that, we can quote a top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Jane Harman, who calls the president the "leaker in chief." Leaving press secretary Scott McClellan to point out that there's a huge difference between the President declassifying information and someone leaking classified information to the press (as was the case with Valerie Plame, and also, as McClellan points out, with the information about the NSA wiretapping program). McClellan says:
"Democrats who refuse to acknowledge that distinction are simply engaging in crass politics."
Which is absolutely right. Of course, he says it in the last paragrpah of the story.
Final result: a large percentage of the people who read this will walk away convinced that George W. Bush authorized Scooter Libby to leak Valerie Plame's name to the New York Times.
posted by Brian at
12:59 PM
1 Comments:
Getting to this post *very* late, so I'll just ask you this, which you can answer in a future post: it's my perception that you've polarized harder right since 2004. Agree or disagree?
By
Jeff Porten, at 11:32 PM, May 25, 2006
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