Plame Flames Again?
By Denise Best | Related entries in In The News, The Plame GameJust curious …
Is the Plame Game still viewed as real news?
What I’d really like to know is how much the entire investigation cost taxpayers — now that would be real news :- )
This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 12th, 2006 and is filed under In The News, The Plame Game. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 12th, 2006 at 9:27 am
Denise, I know you continually post how leery you are about the media, but the government saw fit to investigate this Plame event, so the media saw fit to cover it. That’s just how it goes.
And after all, it was a right-wing haw(c)k Robert Novak who basically started this whole ball rolling with his editorial revealing Plame’s covert status. Apparently, this had happened with other reporters before Novak published it, but he “broke” the story.
Also, is this still news? To the best of my knowledge, Libby is still facing charges. So yes, that’s news.
July 12th, 2006 at 9:28 am
I would love to hear what you consider real news.
July 12th, 2006 at 9:45 am
Seems like a dead horse is continuing to be beaten — my opinion.
I was interested in gauging reader opinion as well.
Well, let’s see …
- How much taxpayer $ has been, and will continue to be used, in this investigation?
- Public opinion, with a large enough sampling size polled, on the importance of the Plame case relative to other issues that might be eligible for federal $.
July 12th, 2006 at 9:52 am
LOL, so the only news related to the Plame affair worth reporting is how un-newsworthy and wasteful the affair is/was?
July 12th, 2006 at 10:06 am
Consider that’s what hasn’t already been reported, so yes, that would be of interest as real news.
Question back to you …
Barring any new revelations or actions, what does continuing coverage of the Plame Game offer?
July 12th, 2006 at 10:13 am
Well, considering this is the first time Robert Novak has spoken publicly about his role in the investigation, yeah…that’s news. Especially since it’s a first person account.
Now, I agree with you, I would like a story about how much we’ve spent on this so far. That would be interesting as well. However, this is really just about your opinion on what the news should report, and I can guarantee you that their coverage is always going to be far broader than your opinion of what they should cover.
July 12th, 2006 at 10:22 am
Denise,
I promise the money that has been spent on this is just a fraction of what it cost to impeach Clinton over lying about an extra-marrital affair. Does that help to make you feel more secure that were not throwing taxpayer money out the door?
July 12th, 2006 at 10:23 am
Point taken, although I believe the media’s coverage is more narrow than what you’re citing.
Of course I’m interested in hearing other folks opinions, thus the post and question.
As far as Novak goes, he should save his account for the memoir that I’m sure is in the works.
July 12th, 2006 at 10:27 am
Nothing, but as Justin noted above, Novak’s admission was a new revelation.
July 12th, 2006 at 10:35 am
For this not to be news would be to say that a crime ceases to be news, even if it is still being pursued by the police/DA, if enough time passes. Until the case(s?) is closed, either by the completion of a trial (or the announcement that there is insufficient evidence to prosecute, which is not the case here), it remains news. Whether it ought to be front-page news or not is a judgement call — that’s what they pay editors for: to decide what to put where their potential readers will see it and buy the paper.
July 12th, 2006 at 10:55 am
I’d say it is bigger news than a guess that the future defict might be not as huge as originally guessed.
July 12th, 2006 at 8:53 pm
After that circus run by Kenneth Starr, this investigation has been kept for the most part off the front page of the newspapers. But it does not help to have Ann Coulter and Barbara Comstock on your side and hope not to have daily press briefings on what the investigators were doing. BTW, Comstock is now on the team defending Scooter Libby.
According to the Washington Post on 24 OCT 2005, the Fitzgerald investigation ran up a bill of $723,000 in fifteen months. It seems the Starr investigation alone ran up a bill of $40,835,000 in his four years of investigation. The person before Starr racked up a $6,000,000 bill. That is a difference of 56 times when comparing the Starr and Fitzgerald investigations together.
As for anyone caring to the story, I for one do due to several reasons. The first is in regards to the “politicizing� of the intelligence to go into Iraq. This administration and its pundits have given talking points to why Amb. Wilson was wrong a few years ago – both on the points of Iraq and him personally. Time has shown Wilson was not wrong for his OP-ED piece. It has turned out, after the POTUS said himself ‘no one in his administration’, a couple of people had done so. Before someone responds she was not a cover agent, that is irrelevant because the paper and a paragraph her name shows up is marked S/NF. That is classified information. Period. End of story. This administration has taken a DEA Agent out of Atlanta to court a few years ago for disclosing S/NF information to the press. I believe the agent pleaded guilty for a lesser time in prison sentence. According to the Atlanta paper, it seems a person in the House of Lords in Britain was in a money-laundering scheme. Did the Briton get his trail?
Secondly, as a person who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, I don’t want my sacrifice tarnished with the mis-deeds of another being. I went to those locations in service to my country (as well as some personal reasons like adventure and saving a little pot of money), and not because someone wanted to score a personal vendetta.
I am held accountable to do my work professionally, efficiently, with values/morals, and at the benefit of my country. Why should I not expect the same of my leaders?
July 12th, 2006 at 9:13 pm
Let me alter something in my earlier post. The number, if comparing apples to apples, will be something like $1.25M to $30M. That $40M was also had $13M government charged as expenses to help the Starr’s investigation.
It can also be said the Starr investigation found a lot of guilty people in the process. The Starr investigation, and the one he took over, covered a myriad of issues - travel gate, whitewater, pre-martial affair, and who knows what else. The Fitzgerald investigation kept its focus on one issue - who leaked Plame’s name to the press. It could be possible Fitzgerald could have expanded his investigation in at least one direction had he chosen to do so.
July 13th, 2006 at 6:32 am
Denise, in a word, Yes. I’ve written on my blog that whether or not the leak of Plame’s identity was “illegal,” it’s pretty clear the White House went after Joe Wilson with vengeance on a personal level–and that is a sad display of White House ethics. It further shows how far the WH is willing to go to protect its flimsy evidence, and how hypocritical they’ve become when it comes to going after media leaks.
I’m over this group of hoodlums.