MSNBC's Howard Fineman on the press and the Rove story:
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The ferocity with which the presidential press corps went after the Karl Rove story is startling, but it shouldn’t be surprising.
Several media, political and Washington vectors intersected to create an explosive Rove Reaction.
Third thoughts on pre-Iraq reporting
Take my word, there has been a lot of soul searching in the so-called Main Stream Media (MSM) over its performance, or lack of performance, in the months leading up to the American-led ouster of Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq. Specifically, did we replace what should have been professional skepticism with a certain mindless credulousness in assessing the reality of the Bush administration’s claims of imminent danger to the country and the world from Saddam’s supposedly vast stash of weapons of mass destruction, including—only months away, it was said—the nuclear kind?
If we failed, was it out of a misplaced sense of patriotic duty, or political cowardice or sheer incompetence—or all three? The press corps was spring-loaded with self-doubt over the WMD issue, and ready to snap over any story that would allow it to revisit what now looks to have been a massive—and embarrassingly successful, from the press’s point of view—propaganda campaign.
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the war in Iraq is really the larger picture here...Rove's actions dovetail neatly into the White House predeliction for smearing war critics, as was done with Wilson, and Richard Clarke, and Paul O'Neill, among others. the press should be embarassed and if the Rove story is the tipping point, it's long overdue.
watch for the GOP noise machine to begin to target Patrick J. Fitzgerald, special prosecutor in the Rove case. he's the
White House's biggest problem right now:
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White House officials acknowledged privately that they are concerned that the investigation will lead to an indictment of someone in the administration later this year.
Randall D. Eliason, former public corruption chief at the U.S. Attorney's Office here, said Fitzgerald likely has evidence of serious wrongdoing, or he would not have gone this far.
"Right now, it's more political damage than legal damage" for the White House, Eliason said. "But it's reasonable to speculate he wouldn't go to the Supreme Court on reporters' privilege unless he had something pretty serious. You don't subpoena reporters and throw them in jail lightly. Fitzgerald is not some type of bomb-thrower."
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