Journalists Remain At Center Of Media's Never-Ending Obsession With Itself
Today's Wall Street Journal (free online this week) looks at the roles three prominent journalists are likely to play in the eventual trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Judith Miller of the New York Times and Matt Cooper of Time magazine have been the media community's faces throughout this story up until now but NBC's Tim Russert is emerging as an important player. And he's increasingly getting heat from bloggers about it, even as other players remain in the spotlight.
Arianna Huffington, has been blasting Russert each week for months now for, in her opinion, not being more forthcoming about the part he has played. Huffington is back at it again today about yesterday's edition of "Meet the Press":
"To be fair, however, Russert did mention his own involvement in Plamegate. Here is what he said: 'Five government officials and three journalists, including yours truly, included in [the indictment].'"It's not just liberal bloggers who are putting a spotlight on Russert. Hugh Hewitt wonders:"That's it. Just one cute, glib mention. But it's not enough, and thanks to Tom Maguire, Mickey Kaus, and Accuracy in Media, we know this Sunday more than we knew last Sunday just how not-enough it is."
"On the day of the indictment, I asked on air how Russert can be allowed to cover a major trial in which he will be a central witness. It is a conflict-of-interest as big as the Titanic, with a Titanic-like result possible for NBC's reputation."Meanwhile, the Judy Miller saga continues. This morning on "Imus," New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd was pressed by the host about her column critical of Miller and the atmosphere at the paper. Dowd broke a little news, saying that a Miller rebuttal on the op-ed pages is under consideration.
Columnist Bob Novak, who first published the name Valerie Plame and has refused to discuss the case, may be finished as an analyst at CNN according to the New York Post's Don Kaplan:
"Novak has a contract with CNN that is said to expire in early 2006. The debate inside CNN is what — if anything — to do about it. Not the least of CNN's concerns is the role Novak played in the infamous Valerie Plame case."And BuzzMachine's Jarvis picks out this point from Howard Kurtz's column this morning to highlight what this is all doing to the media's image in general:
"The indictment of Lewis 'Scooter' Libby over his you-didn't-get-this-from-me discussions with Tim Russert, Matt Cooper and Miller has dramatized the sagging reputation of reporters. Rather than digging out vital information, they are seen as conduits for political sniping and worse."There's nothing journalists do quite as well as navel-gazing and, judging from the time spent looking inward on this story, it's unlikely we'll be finished talking about this anytime soon.