NYT(All the News That Fits on our Petard): At Leak Inquiry's Center, a Circumspect Columnist (Novak)

Mr. Wilson had written that based on a trip he made to Niger sponsored by the Central Intelligence Agency, he thought some intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear weapons program that the administration had relied on as a basis to go to war was "twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat."

This tortured sentence, hedging on Wilson's assertions in his "Mission to Niger" op-ed, demonstrates that even the New York Times is a little embarrassed by their connection to ol' Joe.

Joseph C. Wilson IV is evidently well on his way to becoming a non-person.

He has become part of the story," said Lucy Dalglish, the executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. "He should disclose what's going on. Everyone else has."

This is solid gold hypocrisy. Being part of the story has been the pimps, oops, I mean reporters life blood.

"Mr. Wilson had written that based on a trip he made to Niger sponsored by the Central Intelligence Agency, he thought some intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear weapons program that the administration had relied on as a basis to go to war was "twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat."

I hope whoever it was over at the CIA who decided it was a good idea to send Joe over to check out the Niger situation has been or will be fired during the current reorganization process.

Yes indeed... Wonder whether the trail points to France. After all, weren't they the source of the forged yellowcake memo? Plenty of French involvement in oil-for-food, wasn't there? Connecting dots is fun, isn't it? The NYT was able to connect the dots between the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and some Texas Republican party movers and shakers (give or take a couple of deceased ex-roommates, if memory serves me) - a real ho-hum. Strange that they have so much trouble connecting the dots in a story that is potentially huge and that is unfolding in a way that is clear to careful observers.

The NYT was able to connect the dots between the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and some Texas Republican party movers and shakers (give or take a couple of deceased ex-roommates, if memory serves me) - a real ho-hum. Strange that they have so much trouble connecting the dots in a story that is potentially huge and that is unfolding in a way that is clear to careful observers.

Indeed.

Then again, the NYT was the vehicle where Wilson confessed that it was he who had sallied forth to darkest Niger to sip tea and discern no yellowcake deals were afoot...

BTW, are you following Fitzgerald's other prong of investigation into the NYT reporter who tipped off the Islamic charity they were about to be raided? If you aren't, I'll be happy to dig up a link for you. All part of the pattern he's looking into, I'm thinking.

Let's see if I have this straight. Robert Novak should name his sources because he's a dirty conservative, but left-wing reporters should NOT name their sources, because they serve the Good Cause?

Is that the distinction these writers are trying to get at?

That's my read on it. These left wing Dinosaur Media outlets are staring right into the abyss of their own irrelevancy. They have abused the license granted to them under the First Amendment for far too long, and the serfs (us) are finally waking up to this.

When Novak and a handful of others were the lonely conservative voices in a sea of liberal opinion passed off as "news", the Dinosaur Media chuckled indulgently at them and let them prattle on, passing them off as "proof" that the media wasn't biased to the hard left, putting them on their talk shows with half a dozen liberals who would scream them down.

Unfortunately for the Dinosaurs, the conservative barbarians have crashed through the castle gates, and the serfs have decided that they like what they're hearing from the Huns. Since they can't unring the bell, the only thing they can do is kick the dirty Huns out of the club. What better way to start doing that than by saying, "This group is deserving of the protections we have carved out for ourselves, but your group isn't?"

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