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Jewish World Review July 14, 2005 / 7 Taamuz, 5765 Gotcha, Gotcha, Gotcha By Debra J. Saunders
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Just as the New York Times reported that Bush guru Karl Rove
disclosed to a Time magazine reporter that Bush-hater Joseph C. Wilson was
married to a CIA operative — without naming her — the Times had a real
scoop: Valerie Plame "prefers" to be known as Valerie Wilson. Funny, for
years, the Times and her husband referred to Mrs. Wilson as Valerie Plame.
Now that reports say Rove mentioned that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA,
Plame is Valerie Wilson — a fact that conveniently further damns Rove.
America now knows that Rove told a reporter that former
ambassador Wilson, an official in the Clinton administration, was sent to
Niger to investigate reports that Iraq had tried to obtain uranium for
nuclear weapons — and on the recommendation of his wife, who worked for the
CIA. After Wilson wrote an op-ed for The New York Times about his mission,
Rove questioned his credibility.
I understand the front-page treatment in the Times and The San
Francisco Chronicle when it came out that Rove spoke about Plame with Time's
Matthew Cooper. President Bush made the mistake of saying he would fire any
staffer who leaked "classified" information — a Clintonesque pledge and
hedge. Bush owes the public an explanation. If he doesn't fire Rove, he
should explain why.
There is no evidence, however, that Rove broke the law, as he
seemed completely unaware that Plame was a covert operative. He wasn't out
to punish Plame, but rather to discredit her husband, who discredited the
Bushies.
Now, Rove critics argue that Rove was wrong to leak anything to
the press, not because he might have broken the law, but because those White
House denials undermine the Bushies' credibility.
This is funny, because Wilson has been caught in some
truth-twisting himself. While the media focus on White House discrepancies,
discrepancies in Wilson's story go underreported. While Wilson denied that
his wife recommended him for the Niger trip, a Senate bipartisan Select
Committee on Intelligence found a memo in which Plame recommended sending
her husband to Africa.
More important, Wilson's report did not debunk the Niger story,
as he asserted, but instead bolstered the story's credibility to the CIA,
although State Department officials were skeptical.
Spare me the hand-wringing about "the national security of our
country," as Sen. John F. Kerry put it. I agree that the White House is too
lofty a perch for bad-mouthing a federal employee — that's what the
Republican National Committee is for. Be it noted, however, that America is
no less safe with Valerie's name — be it Plame or Wilson — in the
spotlight.
Besides, surely Wilson knew he was compromising his wife's
anonymity when he wrote the piece for The New York Times.
If there were stories that endangered the lives of Americans
serving abroad, they were the stories of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib
prison, and later the overblown Quran stories that graced the Times' and The
Chronicle's front pages in June — stories that incited anti-American
sentiment across the globe. Rove critics aren't demanding an investigation
to see who leaked those stories, although some on the right wanted an
investigation to see who leaked the original (and inaccurate) Quran-flushing
report to Newsweek.
That Times editors saw the Quran story as top-of-the-page
material is a sign of pure hysteria. Torture at Abu Ghraib was front-page
news; a damp Quran is not.
Here's an example of how tone-deaf the Times has become: Its
magazine wanted a photographer to depict the abuse of prisoners at Iraqi
facilities and Gitmo, so the editors hired Andres Serrano, the photographer
who angered America with his photograph of a crucifix in urine.
Call the Quran and Rove stories examples of a new trend:
We-told-you-so journalism. Gotcha journalism has a new name: Gotcha this
time. No, gotcha this time. No, really, gotcha this time.
If a new story reinforces an old story that the public didn't
care about before, it lands on page one.
Guaranteed.
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Comment JWR contributor Debra J. Saunders's column by clicking here. © 2005, Creators Syndicate |
Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||
