Kurtz on the Glee of the MediaI think that for the most part, the media
seemed more gleeful when they could speculate on Karl Rove being "perp-walked" from the White House; now that it's just Scooter Libby they are having a tougher time channeling Bobby McFerrin.
Now that an indictment has reached the highest level of the White House for the first time since Watergate, journalists face a minefield of potentially explosive questions: Are they enjoying a bit too much the spectacle of Libby, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, having to resign over the charges of perjury and obstruction of justice? What happened to the normal journalistic skepticism toward a single-minded special prosecutor, as was on display when Ken Starr was pursuing Bill Clinton?
The hostility directed at Patrick Fitzgerald when he was threatening reporters with jail seems to have faded now that his targets are senior aides to President Bush. Perhaps most important, are reporters, commentators, bloggers and partisans using the outing of Valerie Plame as a proxy war for rehashing the decision to invade Iraq? The vitriol directed at New York Times reporter Judith Miller, whether deserved or not, seems motivated as much by her role in touting the administration's erroneous WMD claims as in her decision to be jailed, at least for a time, to protect Libby.Of course, all the questions in there are rhetorical. Yes, the Plame affair is a proxy for the war. Yes, the media are having too much fun with the indictment of Libby. And of course, the skepticism towards a single-minded prosecutor goes out the window when the target is a Republican.
The anger at Miller is partially over the WMD issue, but also at the notion that she was protecting a Republican by refusing to testify. Susan McDougall was protecting a Democrat, therefor she was noble. Miller was protecting a Republican, therefor she was evil.
