WaPo Watch
Over at the DCDL blog Keith shakes his fists at our favorite fish wrap:
Why is the Post presenting the Republican spin as the headline and lead of the story, with the actual facts and the contradictory analysis presented only many paragraphs in? It’s bad enough when the cult of “balance” results in articles giving equal weight to an outrageous lie on one side and truth on the other, but in this case the lie has become the story and the truth is relegated to a footnote.
I think I know what happened. Consider the sentence: “Legal experts said Woodward provided two pieces of new information that cast at least a shadow of doubt on the public case against Libby, Vice President Cheney’s former chief of staff, who has been indicted on perjury and obstruction of justice charges.” What legal expert could they possibly be talking about? Hmmm…
- Washington Post Jan 2, 2004. Justice Could Decide Leak Was Not a Crime “‘It could be embarrassing but not illegal,’ said Victoria Toensing, who was chief counsel of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence when Congress passed the law protecting the identities of undercover agents.”
- The Plame Game: Was This a Crime? By Victoria Toensing and Bruce W. Sanford, Wednesday, January 12, 2005; Page A21
- Wednesday, January 12, 2005 Outing an Operative, Victoria Toensing live online.
- washingtonpost.com Video - Thu Jul 21. washingtonpost.com’s Terry Neal talks to attorney Victoria Toensing.
- No Cracks Yet in Leak Investigation; Did Rove Leak Agent’s Name or Didn’t He? Journalists Keep Asking Washingtonpost.com, July 25, 2005 by Terry M. Neal
Toensing characterized this as the type of piling on that’s so typical of Washington, something she deplores. When I asked why she thought special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald was investigating the case so aggressively, Toensing interrupted my questioning, incorrectly inferring I said that I believed Rove was the subject of the investigation. “Stop, stop, don’t do that to somebody’s reputation!” she said. “He’s not a target.”
I could keep going, but all the spinning is making me dizzy.
