Place your Bets on 'The Libby Rove' MSM Spin

Getty Images

The Washington Post has put in another spin called 'Cheyne's Office is A Focus in Leak Case', suggesting that indictments are imminent. Dream on I say...but it's something more for the MSM to hyperventilate about, and the dems to get excited about. But then everyone else jumps on the bandwagon....

Tom Maguire: "At Tradesports, contracts are available which let you wager whether Rove or Libby will be indicted by Dec 31, 2005.  Although I cannot find the contract specifications, I assume a plea bargain counts as an indictment."

Currently, Libby is at a 66% probability of indictment; Rove is at 60%.

And then there is this comment on my post 'St.Judith The Martyr' from one of my readers:

"How can Howard Kurtz of the WaPo formulate a heading "Reporter Says Libby Told Her About CIA Operative", when on the same day, the same 'reporter', i.e. Judith Miller, in first person says the exact opposite?

It's an entirely different thing if you conclude from Miller's testemony that she may not be telling the truth - then, Kurtz, you must say so. But you can not blast out such falsehood, especially if of a subtle but most significant nature, in both the heading and in the opening paragraph. This is just plain bad journalism blatantly designed to 'misinform' as supposed to inform, which, last time I looked, to inform, was still someting journalists aspired to."

Welcome to the world of media spin...

Susan Olasky from Worldmagblog today: "Washington Post stories are often unreliable, so we're checking out further one that ran on Saturday. The story begins with a small company called ..."

Michelle Malkin dealing with the issue of the MSM and blogosphere constant battle: "File this under "How the MSM ignores facts, smears blogs, and publishes snit fits disguised as responsible journalism." and today on the bias against blogs.

And the AP, weighs in with its own: 'Inaccurate Info May Help CIA Leak Probe

Via our own Instapundit from the Chicago Sunday Times:

"Bridgeview used car salesman Muhammad Salah recalls being beaten, housed in a "refrigerator cell" and threatened with rape by Israeli soldiers until he admitted to bankrolling overseas terrorists, according to a new filing in U.S. District Court.

In an odd twist, the interrogation was witnessed by embattled New York Times reporter Judith Miller, and defense attorneys suggested Monday the best way for the U.S. government to prove its case -- and prove Salah wasn't abused -- is to call the controversial journalist to the witness stand."

"We think the government is going to call her," said Chicago defense attorney Michael E. Deutsch."

Meanwhile, from the WaPo: "...conservative columnist William Safire called Fitzgerald a "runaway Chicago prosecutor" and warned that a pair of his investigations are "this generation's gravest threat to our ability to ferret out the news."

And this from the  National Journal, written by Murray Waas, who at least for all his sins has been on the story from Day I:

"As federal prosecutors in the CIA leak investigation reach the critical stage of deciding whether to bring criminal charges, they are zeroing in on contradictions between the testimony of I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, the chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, and that of New York Times reporter Judith Miller, according to sources close to the investigation and attorneys for individuals enmeshed in the probe.

The prosecutors and the federal grand jury are also scrutinizing whether Libby, or his attorney, tried to discourage Miller from giving testimony to the grand jury, or tried to improperly influence what Miller would say if she testified, according to the same sources.

The grand jury has heard testimony from Miller and other witnesses that is at odds with Libby's testimony, according to the same sources. One crucial contradiction between Miller and Libby, the sources say, involves a July 8, 2003, breakfast meeting during which the two discussed Valerie Plame, the covert CIA operative whose identity was revealed a week later in a newspaper column and whose husband, Joe Wilson, was a critic of the Bush administration's Iraq policy."

This takes the prize of the biggest spin of the day, and demonstrates how one MSM spin begets another. In the U.S. news, 'Cheyne Resignation Rumors Fly':

"Sparked by today's Washington Post story that suggests Vice President Cheney's office is involved in the Plame-CIA spy link investigation, government officials and advisers passed around rumors that the vice president might step aside and that President Bush would elevate Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice." Yeah, really?

I know this will make our Frank diSalle @ Condi Pundit happy, but quite frankly it sounds like another lefty wet dream (did I really say that, I thought they had obscene comment censorship on this site!). Sorry Frank.

N.Y. Daily News picks up the story adding another spin:

"WASHINGTON - A special prosecutor's intensifying focus into who outed a CIA spy has raised questions whether Vice President Cheney himself is involved, knowledgeable sources confirmed yesterday."  Yeah we know about those incredibe 'knowledgeables' from the MSM.

Already on Sunday, Time was setting the scene with the most regurgitated rumor of this Administration with the article by Viveka Novak (any relation?):

"Karl Rove has a plan, as always. Even before testifying last week for the fourth time before a grand jury probing the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity, Bush senior adviser Rove and others at the White House had concluded that if indicted he would immediately resign or possibly go on unpaid leave, several legal and Administration sources familiar with the thinking told TIME.

Resignation is the much more likely scenario, they say. The same would apply to I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, the Vice President's chief of staff, who also faces a possible indictment. A former White House official says Rove's break with Bush would have to be clean—no "giving advice from the sidelines"—for the sake of the Administration.

Severing his ties would allow Rove—who as deputy chief of staff runs a vast swath of the West Wing—to fight aggressively "any bull___ charges," says a source close to Rove, like allegations that he was part of a broad conspiracy to discredit Plame's husband Joseph Wilson. Rove's defense: whatever he did fell far short of that.

Special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald appears to be seriously weighing a perjury charge for Rove's failure to tell grand jurors that he talked to TIME correspondent Matthew Cooper about Plame, according to a person close to Rove. Rove corrected himself in a later grand jury session. If charged with perjury, he will maintain he simply didn't recall the conversation with Cooper and told Fitzgerald as soon as he did."

I have noticed that the conservative bloggers have by and large completely ignored this story from beginning to end, as if it did not exist. Leaving it to the left leaning Tower of Pizzas of the blogosphere to report on and put their own MSM induced frenzied spin. How short sited is that?

I wrote an article recently 'Martyr St.Judith's Smoking Gun' and on Sunday 'St. Judith The Martyr', tackling the subject after pioneers such as Tom Maguire, the most thorough on the subject and the best read, Ed Morrissey @ Captain's Quarters and John Hinderacker @ Powerline, two of the finest bloggers out there, have been diligently on it from the beginning. But they are the only ones worth reading, other than of course Murray Waas, but then he hasn't been blogging much this month, so I am not sure whether he would want to qualify.

Case in point, the Tower of Pizza Headquarters @ NYT list: 'Bloggers discuss the Miller Case'.

Guys that just doesn't work. You cannot expect our readers to constantly have to go to those very sites you always pulverize, in a desperate to attempt to get the latest. And worse still, as one of my readers discovered (see above), rely on the 'blog smearing' MSM for accurate information. Do you think by ignoring it, it will go away? No it won't and unless you start telling it how it is, the right portion of the anti-Miers smear campaign Bush bashers will join in too.

WAKE UP.....AND START WRITING....NOW

Finally today I leave you with an article from the WaPo Feb. issue 'The Prosecutor Never Rests',  which may give you an insight as to which way the wind may blow: " "If you are not zealous you shouldn't have the job" says U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald, whose subpoenas of reporters have prompted complaints."

Yeah, right. Is 'zealous' another word for obsessive? I have to look that up....LOL

Comments

[Alexandra]

I bet Frank....what a script, just a minor re-write and you can take it as 'red'.
Now about that Cheyne Machiavellian theory you mention on your site....you know that has to top the spins.

[fd10801]

Thanks, Alexandra...

Much heavy breathing going on at CondiPundit

I had hoped (dreamed?) that, at the RNC in 2004, Cheney was going to stand up and say, "Ladies and Gentlemen, my fellow Republicans, I cannot accept your nomination for Vice - President, due to failing health. I present to you my personal choice for a replacement, and ask your unanimous approval for, the next Vice President of the United States,the National Security Advisor, Ms. Condoleezza Rice! (followed by explosive applause, a 45 minute "spontaneous floor demonstration," unanimous approval,and a subsequent 40 state win by George Bush over John Kerry.)

A dream is a wish your heart makes ...

[Alexandra]

You know guys, I think all these discussions will become superfluous, until Fitzgerald decides whether he can go away with his tail between his legs or whether indeed he may have to throw in an odd indictment to save face. Then it may well come down to scape goats such as Tate and Abrams, Libby and Miller's respective lawyers, 'engaged in an obstruction of justice or witness-tampering'."

Specifically referring to what occurred between Tate and Abrams, an "attorney encouraging a witness to withhold information from a grand jury when the witness had no right to withhold is engaging in obstructive behavior."

Straws gentlemen, grasping at straws....

[Darrell]

I think Fitzgerald was more interested in Judith Miller's source for the pending FBI raid of an alleged Islamo-terrorist cell. Miller called them prior to the raid, of course. Wouldn't you? Strike that! Of course you wouldn't! Since she left her jail cell when Fitz agreed not to stray from the Plame matter, I would place my bet on that as well.

Could Fitzgerald be investigating a conspiracy by major reporters(from multiple companies) trying to unseat a sitting President? Since Plame and Wilson had outed themselves at dinner parties for "years" according to Andrea Mitchell at MSNBC, could they have set a plan in motion designed to trap Rove and others close to Bush? Trying to get them to mention a "covert" operative's name? Hope spring eternal!

Who at the Justice Dept. is looking into felony charges for Sens. Dick Durbin, Jay Rockefeller, and Jay Wyden for disclosing information that had learned about the US stealth satellite program in their oversight role. Of course, senators sign a secrecy agreement when they join the Senate Intelligence Committee(Senate Select Committee on Intelligence) with access to top secret information. When senators first were given access to such secret information, they promised that they would never compromise the security of the Nation. Actually, they were outraged that the question was ever asked! Anyway, I'd just like to know when the indictments will be handed out. This one seems like a slam dunk, eh? Just sitting here waiting.....I better read all the MSM stories on this while I wait....Hmm. None.

[Kenny Pierce]

Darrell,

But I think Fitzgerald is going to prosecute not on the basis of "outed a covert agent," but on the much broader basis of "revealed classified information."

Not that even that will necessarily have merit; but I don't think there's any way he'll be silly enough to go for the covert agent charge at this point. Instead, having been brought in to investigate a crime that wasn't one, he's out to find something else that WAS a crime. If I'm not mistaken that's how Ken Starr managed to get the indictments and convictions that he landed...in the course of proving that you didn't commit the crime with which you're originally charge, you inadvertently shed light on something else that you might be able to be nailed for, and the prosecutor goes for that.

The covert agent thing is dead in the water, though, I'll agree.

[Darrell]

I'll place my bet against indictments! It should be a sure bet, if the world hasn't gone absolutely crazy. Why? Well for starters, I'm not trapped in a perpetual time loop like the Press. The poor dears! They must revert to Day 1 of a story everyday! I remember that Valerie Plame was found to NOT be a covert agent for at least five years! I would think that would constitute exculpatory evidence, even in those TV courts. Didn't Aldrich Ames out her once? And the Swiss out her again after they asked for the pleasantries of a formal presentation of credentials, then promptly handed them over to the Cubans(I guess they got the envelopes with their cigar orders mixed up). I even called the CIA Headquarters in Langley and asked for Valerie Plame(Valerie Wilson) a couple of days after the story broke and was connected with her number(A secretary told me she wasn't available and asked if I cared to leave a message). I didn't. That whole process wouldn't have occured, I assure you, if Ms Plame was covert. At least I hope it wouldn't! I remember the days when we were discouraged from putting CIA bumper stickers on our luggage when traveling abroad. Perhaps this is a new tactic--CIA cover for covert agents. I will be the first one to volunteer to visit those "forbidden" military/industrial districts in China, photographing them with a high-res digital camera while wearing a windbreaker(how about a nice dark blue)with the CIA logo in 10-inch-high yellow letters on the front and back. Like those FBI windbreakers you see on TV. I'd like to see them prosecute me as a spy after that! Gone must be the days when the KGB "Baker"--a chap who liked to put live people in commercial bakery ovens, no matter how the question and answer session went--wandered this Earth!

The MSM template has been that members of the Bush Administration scurried about trying to find anyone in the Press to listen to them as they tried to discredit Wilson. Again I recall that the Newsweek chap said that he contacted Rove, lying by the way, about wanting to talk about "welfare reform." A topic he apparently forgot to bring up afterwards. And according to his own words, Rove said "wife." Now the law says that you have to give a name of a covert agent, and identify them as a covert agent---while gaining access to that information using your security clearance. Case closed. None of the elements were met.

No, this whole matter is just an opportunity for the Press to use Administraton names and the word "Indictment" in the same breath. Kind of like "Commander-in-Chief." Each week in their promos they get to say things like "New Administration. New Politics. New Hope." or "Lies. Corruption. Deceit. In the White House!"(this week's promo) Then you can have actors calling themselves "Republicans" saying nasty things and admitting all sorts of illegal, immoral, and unethical things, for a full hour---every week! Clever Lefties! It just depends on us being stupid!