Stumbling, Bumbling Know-it-Alls
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http://www.democracynow.org/print.pl?sid=05/08/04/1357248
EXCERPT:
JUAN GONZALEZ: And Murray Waas, the role of the press in this whole issue, because clearly, because of the attempts of the White House to leak the information on Valerie Plame to a whole number of folks in the press, this is a story that many reporters in Washington know more about than they're actually reporting.
MURRAY WAAS: That's correct. Our hands are tied. I just wanted to backtrack for a moment and say your competitor, National Public Radio, reported this morning that on his second day at the U.N., and this is an exact quote, John Bolton has been a “model of decorum.” That's their exact words. So it should be interesting if NPR reports on the third, fourth and tenth and twelfth day and how long into his tenure as U.N. ambassador that he has been a model of decorum. It's kind of extraordinary that they said without any kind of irony whatsoever, I think, reported that as news. I mean, one can imagine perhaps we'll have reports on the news about Condoleezza Rice today was a model of decorum, or the Vice President was a model of decorum or members of Congress were models of decorum, but back to the role of the press in this story.
It’s kind of -- what we have seen is a tremendous press failure, but what's extraordinarily interesting, and perhaps Joe, Ambassador Wilson, can address this, as well, or more articulately than I can, is that the defense is that nothing was wrong -- done wrong here, but sloppy journalism. In other words, when Bob Novak used Valerie Plame's name -- when he mentioned that Wilson's wife worked at the C.I.A. as, quote, “an operative,” Novak's story is that that was -- he used the word operative, none of his sources, Karl Rove nor anybody else, did. So, that was his own sloppy use of a phrase, his own -- Novak's own indiscretion, his own sloppy reporting, in effect. He kind of, by using that phrase, he brought this on.
Secondly, he's acknowledged that he didn't kind of vet it or do the fact checking or do more reporting as he should and thirdly, he has now come out and through his emissaries and said that -- trying to get Rove off the hook, saying that he first mentioned this to Rove, and he had heard it elsewhere. And supposedly, Rove said to Bob Novak, ‘I have heard that, too.’ Well, when somebody says something to the effect of "I heard that, too," that means that they have heard similar information, similar gossip. So, in -- that's the person who Bob Novak is using as a second source. Any first-year journalism student at NYU or Columbia knows that you don't use somebody as a source who’s just heard a similar rumor to the one that you have heard.
So if we believe Bob Novak's account, he engaged in substandard news reporting on not one aspect of this column, but several aspects of this column. And it's led to the jailing of a New York Times reporter, it's harmed the national security of the United States because it led to the outing of a C.I.A. operative. It's hurt the morale of the C.I.A. It's damaged the Bush administration endlessly, and it's hurt the credibility of the press, partly because reporters were engaged in this scheme or took the bad information, and also because they're now revealing their confidential sources in cooperating with the prosecutors.
So, all of this occurred because reporters were sloppy, because they didn't do their work. I mean, that, in effect is the cover story, or that's what Robert Novak is insisting. And I have interviewed Geneva Overholser, for example, the former editor at The Des Moines Register, and she said some strong words about Novak, but what's interesting is because he's really at the core of a elite group, a cocktail party crowd or kind of celebrity journalism at CNN, nobody will come out and -- the Washington press corps is pretty much silent. The big wheels and big guns are not saying anything. They're not policing themselves. And this could have really deleterious and damaging long-term effects on journalism.
And one other interesting aspect is The Washington Post in this. And maybe Ambassador Wilson can talk about that, but a reporter, Susan Schmidt, has done a lot of erroneous reporting, kind of taking information from the administration to further attack him and Valerie, but also Bob Woodward has been on all -- a bunch of TV shows saying that there's no story here, that this is a lot of hype, and we're seeing an iceberg with a tip of -- some reporter is just seeing an iceberg because they see a tip of an iceberg, but there might not be anything beyond that. And so, the Post has been extraordinarily quiet over the last several months or the year and has only began to recently re-report the story because the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times and The New York Times, even the American Prospect, have begun to aggressively report the story.
No comment, just link to the piece, Herb.
http://www.democracynow.org/print.pl?sid=05/08/04/1357248
EXCERPT:
JUAN GONZALEZ: And Murray Waas, the role of the press in this whole issue, because clearly, because of the attempts of the White House to leak the information on Valerie Plame to a whole number of folks in the press, this is a story that many reporters in Washington know more about than they're actually reporting.
MURRAY WAAS: That's correct. Our hands are tied. I just wanted to backtrack for a moment and say your competitor, National Public Radio, reported this morning that on his second day at the U.N., and this is an exact quote, John Bolton has been a “model of decorum.” That's their exact words. So it should be interesting if NPR reports on the third, fourth and tenth and twelfth day and how long into his tenure as U.N. ambassador that he has been a model of decorum. It's kind of extraordinary that they said without any kind of irony whatsoever, I think, reported that as news. I mean, one can imagine perhaps we'll have reports on the news about Condoleezza Rice today was a model of decorum, or the Vice President was a model of decorum or members of Congress were models of decorum, but back to the role of the press in this story.
It’s kind of -- what we have seen is a tremendous press failure, but what's extraordinarily interesting, and perhaps Joe, Ambassador Wilson, can address this, as well, or more articulately than I can, is that the defense is that nothing was wrong -- done wrong here, but sloppy journalism. In other words, when Bob Novak used Valerie Plame's name -- when he mentioned that Wilson's wife worked at the C.I.A. as, quote, “an operative,” Novak's story is that that was -- he used the word operative, none of his sources, Karl Rove nor anybody else, did. So, that was his own sloppy use of a phrase, his own -- Novak's own indiscretion, his own sloppy reporting, in effect. He kind of, by using that phrase, he brought this on.
Secondly, he's acknowledged that he didn't kind of vet it or do the fact checking or do more reporting as he should and thirdly, he has now come out and through his emissaries and said that -- trying to get Rove off the hook, saying that he first mentioned this to Rove, and he had heard it elsewhere. And supposedly, Rove said to Bob Novak, ‘I have heard that, too.’ Well, when somebody says something to the effect of "I heard that, too," that means that they have heard similar information, similar gossip. So, in -- that's the person who Bob Novak is using as a second source. Any first-year journalism student at NYU or Columbia knows that you don't use somebody as a source who’s just heard a similar rumor to the one that you have heard.
So if we believe Bob Novak's account, he engaged in substandard news reporting on not one aspect of this column, but several aspects of this column. And it's led to the jailing of a New York Times reporter, it's harmed the national security of the United States because it led to the outing of a C.I.A. operative. It's hurt the morale of the C.I.A. It's damaged the Bush administration endlessly, and it's hurt the credibility of the press, partly because reporters were engaged in this scheme or took the bad information, and also because they're now revealing their confidential sources in cooperating with the prosecutors.
So, all of this occurred because reporters were sloppy, because they didn't do their work. I mean, that, in effect is the cover story, or that's what Robert Novak is insisting. And I have interviewed Geneva Overholser, for example, the former editor at The Des Moines Register, and she said some strong words about Novak, but what's interesting is because he's really at the core of a elite group, a cocktail party crowd or kind of celebrity journalism at CNN, nobody will come out and -- the Washington press corps is pretty much silent. The big wheels and big guns are not saying anything. They're not policing themselves. And this could have really deleterious and damaging long-term effects on journalism.
And one other interesting aspect is The Washington Post in this. And maybe Ambassador Wilson can talk about that, but a reporter, Susan Schmidt, has done a lot of erroneous reporting, kind of taking information from the administration to further attack him and Valerie, but also Bob Woodward has been on all -- a bunch of TV shows saying that there's no story here, that this is a lot of hype, and we're seeing an iceberg with a tip of -- some reporter is just seeing an iceberg because they see a tip of an iceberg, but there might not be anything beyond that. And so, the Post has been extraordinarily quiet over the last several months or the year and has only began to recently re-report the story because the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times and The New York Times, even the American Prospect, have begun to aggressively report the story.
No comment, just link to the piece, Herb.
posted by Herb at 8:19 PM
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