This week’s big news was the revelation that “Scooter” Libby testified to the grand jury that he had been given clearance by President Bush via Vice President Cheney to leak classified information about Valerie Plame’s work with the CIA to Judith Miller of the New York Times.
I wanted to compare and contrast several different news sources that covered this story. Just how fair and balanced is our national media? I looked around for several different sources and found some different takes on it.
Here’s how Editor and Publisher, a site by and for journalists, ran the story:
New Court Filing: Libby Got OK from Bush to Leak to Miller
NEW YORK Former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby testified to a grand jury that he gave information from a National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq to New York Times reporter Judith Miller in 2003 with the specific permission of President Bush, according to a new court filing from the special prosecutor in the case.
This information was first published by The New York Sun earlier today. E&P has now examined the 39-page filing in PDF form.
“The court papers from the prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, do not suggest that Mr. Bush violated any law or rule,” the Sun’s Josh Gerstein observes. “However, the new disclosure could be awkward for the president because it places him, for the first time, directly in a chain of events that led to a meeting where prosecutors contend the identity of a CIA employee, Valerie Plame, was provided to a reporter.”
In a court filing late Wednesday responding to requests from Libby’s attorneys for government records that might aid his defense, Fitzgerald wrote about the July 8, 2003, meeting: “Defendant testified that he was specifically authorized in advance of the meeting to disclose the key judgments of the classified NIE to Miller on that occasion because it was thought that the NIE was ‘pretty definitive’ against what Ambassador Wilson had said and that the vice president thought that it was ‘very important’ for the key judgments of the NIE to come out.”
Here’s the Chicago Tribune’s story from today:
Libby says Bush OK’d leak on Iraq
WASHINGTON — Long after President Bush warned that anyone in his administration who leaked classified information would suffer the consequences, a new federal court filing asserts that it was Bush himself who authorized release of once-classified intelligence about Iraq’s purported weapons of mass destruction in the summer of 2003.
Former vice presidential chief of staff Lewis “Scooter” Libby, who was indicted on obstruction of justice charges in the broad investigation of the leaked identity of a CIA officer, has testified that Bush authorized him to release “relevant” parts of a National Intelligence Estimate to offset criticism of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, according to court documents filed Wednesday.
The potentially embarrassing revelation for the Bush administration is contained in a federal court filing by the Chicago-based prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, who is investigating the disclosure of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame. That document makes no connection between Bush and the leak of Plame’s name, but it draws Bush into a small circle that released selected national intelligence to counter the claims of an outspoken critic of the war.
The president had the legal authority to declassify information by releasing it, a government authority and outside experts say, but the alleged episode raises a more pressing political problem. It has increased demands for the White House–which refused to comment on the investigation Thursday–to publicly address a conflict between Bush’s criticism of leaks and his own alleged leaking.
The Salt Lake Tribune went with the Knight-Ridder story, bylined William Douglas:
Bush was behind CIA leak, aide says
WASHINGTON – President Bush authorized Vice President Dick Cheney’s former top aide to divulge classified intelligence information to a New York Times reporter in an effort to defend the president’s decision to go to war against Iraq, according to court papers made public Thursday.
The court documents indicate that Bush and Cheney authorized the release of the intelligence information after former Ambassador Joseph Wilson wrote a July 6, 2003, op-ed piece charging that the administration’s claim that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was trying to obtain uranium from Niger was false. Some intelligence agencies also disputed the White House’s allegation at the time, and it later proved to be false.
The court documents provide the most concrete evidence to date that the president and vice president were engaged in a campaign to disclose selected snippets of highly classified intelligence, much of it misleading, exaggerated or wrong, to a few trusted journalists in an effort to bolster their case for war.
According to court papers filed by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald on Wednesday, former Cheney aide I. Lewis ”Scooter” Libby told a federal grand jury that he received ”approval from the president through the vice president” to reveal key judgments of the National Intelligence Estimate in 2003 about Saddam’s alleged attempts to develop weapons of mass destruction.
The more conservative Salt Lake paper, the church-owned Deseret News,
headlined it this way, using the New York Times news service story bylined by David Johnston and David E Sanger:
Ex-Cheney Aide says Bush OK’d Disclosure
WASHINGTON — Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff testified that he was authorized by President Bush, through Cheney, in July 2003 to disclose key portions of what until then was a classified prewar intelligence estimate on Iraq, according to a new court filing.
The testimony by the former official, I. Lewis Libby Jr., cited in a court filing by the government made late Wednesday, provides the first indication that Bush, who has long assailed leaks of secret information as a threat to national security, may have played a direct role in authorizing the disclosure of the intelligence report on Iraq.
The disclosure occurred at a moment when the White House was trying to defend itself against charges that it had inflated the case against Saddam Hussein.
The president has the authority to declassify information, and Libby indicated in his grand jury testimony that he believed Bush’s instructions — which prosecutors said Libby regarded as “unique in his recollection” — gave him legal cover to talk with a reporter about the intelligence.
Here’s how FOX News sees it:
WASHINGTON — President Bush was defending the War on Terror to an audience in North Carolina on Thursday, just as word came that newly filed court documents reveal Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney authorized Cheney’s former chief of staff to release classified information about Iraq in July 2003. (Emphasis: FOX News)
I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the only person indicted in the ongoing CIA leak investigation, told a grand jury that he had permission to discuss with reporters the National Intelligence Estimate regarding Iraq weapons systems.
Nothing in the papers indicate Bush or Cheney told Libby to reveal the name of CIA analyst Valerie Plame, nor do they suggest that either the president or vice president did anything illegal. But the documents do hint at more problems for the administration since some may show a plan to punish one of its critics, Plame’s husband, Amb. Joe Wilson.
(Emphasis: mine)The new information is contained in 39 pages of arguments filed late Wednesday by prosecutors as part of an attempt to block subpoenas filed by Libby’s lawyers that could force high-ranking officials to testify, including former CIA Director George Tenet and Bush’s top political adviser, Karl Rove.
Are FOX News stories written by CARTOONS? That first paragraph is amazing. When I took high school journalism classes, ::modest cough:: I learned the basics of writing that all-important first block of text. They were “who, what, where, why, when,” not necessarily in that order – which can be varied to show a different emphasis on an aspect of the story.
What the hell does Bush defending the War! On! Terror! (to a presumably unfriendly audience) when “word came” have to do with this story? And this is the news channel that Cheney requests be pre-set on the TV when he travels? Obviously, the FOX News J-School, if they ever fund it, will have Propaganda 101-401 as core requirements.
Meanwhile, the well-regarded conservative New Hampshire paper, the Union-Leader, has not published anything on this story as of yet. It may be buried in their AP news feed… but I notice that they ran the story about Sam the wandering golden retriever on their front page the other day.
Okay, obviously the FOX News story I’m mocking is from a couple of days ago, but I continue to ponder this. Why is it that FOX News reserves the right to use the phrase “Fair and Balanced” to describe its reportage, when all they produce is relentlessly rightward spin favorable to the Bush administration? There was a moment when Brit Hume grumbled about even having the headline “Libby Tells Procecutors Bush Authorized CIA Leak” (as the in-studio staff applauds). Subtext: “We don’t want to report this because it damages the President’s reputation, but we have to, so we’ll hold our noses.” It was a completely factual headline, but apparently no one had time to re-write it to spin more favorably in Bush’s favor. Because the truth hurts the President, and they don’t like reporting whatever hurts him… so logically, they don’t like reporting the hurtful truth.
Via a helpful link at Crooks and Liars, an analysis of how the story is currently being spun: the disclosure was legal, because the President authorized it. So the President is not the Leaker In Chief after all. When actually, it was not legal, and not officially declassified, at the time Libby went to Judth Miller with his notes. Remember, it was all to discredit Joseph’s Wilson refusal to toe the party line on Iraq trying to buy uranium and make those elusive, never-to-be-found weapons of mass destruction. Way back when justifying the invasion was Job One.