The press look away as Russert pancakes at the Libby trial

Tim Russert became the first press casualty of the Lewis “Scooter” Libby trial on Thursday, but most of his colleagues neglected to report it**. The host of NBC’s “Meet the Press” was identified, in evidence submitted to bolster the testimony of Dick Cheney aide Cathie Martin, as the vice president’s platform of choice to push back against allegations that the administration knew that their claim of an Iraqi attempt to buy uranium from Niger was bogus. The overt implication is that the administration regarded Russert as a patsy, someone whose unaccountable credibility they could borrow to enhance their own, and someone through whom they could present their case with a minimum of interference.

Whether despite or because Russert sits atop the heap of Washington’s political journalism community, none of the institutional press reports on Martin’s testimony mentioned the demeaning Russert reference in Martin’s notes. One suspects that had the reference been to Russert’s opposite number on Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace, reporters would have felt perfectly comfortable slipping in a dig or two.

For dedicated press watchers, the involvement of Washington’s press corps in the investigation of the leak that led to Libby’s indictment is almost as interesting as the trial itself. Russert, who will testify as a prosecution witness in the trial, is among a number of journalists who knew considerably more about the leak than they acknowledged as they commented about or reported on it and on the investigation.

The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward, who may be called as a defense witness in the trial, is one of them. Former Time Magazine reporter John Dickerson, who is covering the trial for Slate, is another, as is NBC White House reporter David Gregory, whose involvement surfaced Thursday as a prelude to next week’s testimony from former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer. Former New York Times reporter Judy Miller, whose reporting on Iraq before and after the invasion thoroughly if belatedly embarrassed the paper, was invited to seek employment elsewhere when Times executive editor Bill Keller found her account of her own involvement in the leak less than fully accurate. (Before her departure, Miller was the object of numerous fawning Times editorials while she was jailed on contempt charges in connection with the investigation.)

In fact, tracking down reporters who didn’t know more about the case than they imparted to their readers, whether to protect sources or themselves, might be more difficult than identifying those who did. As with almost everything connected to Iraq, this was not a shining moment for many Washington journalists. There is perhaps no better source than Nobel Prize-winning author William Faulkner to give voice to the despairing press critic’s view on the relationship between the Washington press corps and the Bush administration. From Light in August:

“Jesus Christ!” Grimm cried, his young voice clear and outraged like that of a young priest. “Has every preacher and old maid in Jefferson taken their pants down to the yellowbellied son of a bitch?”

~~~~~~~~~~

One of the enduring mysteries of the leak investigation is the identity of the senior administration official who provided Washington Post reporters Mike Allen and Dana Priest — Allen is now with Time — with information for their seminal story on the investigation. The official said that “two top White House officials,” presumably Libby and either Fleischer or Karl Rove, “called at least six Washington journalists and disclosed the identity and occupation of [former ambassador Joe] Wilson’s wife” before columnist Bob Novak published the information. With luck, that person will turn up on the prosecution’s witness list. Meanwhile, Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff has reported that both Rove and White House counselor Dan Bartlett have been subpoenaed by Libby’s attorney.

**My abject apologies to the Post’s Dana Milbank, who did report it in a front-page story no less.

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12 Responses to “The press look away as Russert pancakes at the Libby trial”

1. 1
   Patrick J. Fitzgerald Says:
   

   :) nice overview

   January 28th, 2007 at 5:02 am
2. 2
   Eric Brewer Says:
   

   Weldon,

   Dana Milbank DID highlight Russert’s shame in Friday’s Post, and on the front page, no less. Dana’s first sentence:

   “Memo to Tim Russert: Dick Cheney thinks he controls you.”

   Gotta give credit where it’s due.

   January 28th, 2007 at 9:57 am
3. 3
   Weldon Berger Says:
   

   Damn. I searched the bejeebers out of that.

   January 28th, 2007 at 10:55 am
4. 4
   MediaChannel » Lewis Libby Trial Coverage Central Says:
   

   […] Tim Russert was the first causalty of this trial. […]

   January 29th, 2007 at 3:41 am
5. 5
   Ed Feldman Says:
   

   This might be important news to the wonks in DC. Outside the beltway, about 20 people care. This country is screwed because we focus on crap like this while the real problems are ignored.

   January 29th, 2007 at 8:05 am
6. 6
   Weldon Berger Says:
   

   Ed, people might not care about it, but an actual functioning press is a big deal. In many respects, we don’t have one. When you have a press who don’t push back against an administration who are uniformly dishonest, you wind up with people like Russert and Judy Miller controlling the news agenda, you wind up with a badly misinformed citizenry, and you wind up with things like Iraq.

   January 29th, 2007 at 9:35 am
7. 7
   Ed Feldman Says:
   

   So you actually believe that the war in Iraq was caused by “misinformed citizenry”? How about a more accurate description like ignorant, gullible, or nihilistic? All of the above are the result of a failed education system. And don’t forget that “functioning Press” you long for are mostly from the bottom quartile of students.

   Like I said, we’re screwed, and it’s got nothing to do with Rs or Ds. A few more election cycles will pass before we fall into tyranny.

   January 29th, 2007 at 10:50 am
8. 8
   The Hindsight Factor Says:
   

   Libby: Leftly Leaning - Monday, January 29th

   Busy weekend for Jeralyn at TalkLeft. First, the Cliffs Notes version of the week in review with a brief interlude to comment on the strained credulity of insulating the OVP. Up at dawn (quipping that trial lawyers never sleep when they are in trial) Je

   January 29th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
9. 9
   Weldon Berger Says:
   

   No, I don’t think the invasion of Iraq was caused by misinformed citizens, but it was surely abetted by them, and the press were the primary vehicle through which they were misinformed. Had the press been calling bullshit at every opportunity, and I’m sure you’ll agree that there were many, many opportunities, selling the invasion would have been much, much harder. It’s likely that the administration would have gone ahead with it regardless, but imagine how different the past five years would have been had there been a Congress with a spine stiffened by voters with a clue. Unless your argument is that everyone who supported the war, or didn’t resist it, is simply incurably stupid, the press could have made a huge difference.

   Most of the reporters I know are pretty smart. Most of them managed to make it through college, which obviously doesn’t guarantee smart but would probably eliminate that bottom quintile. Where did you come up with that?

   January 29th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
10. 10
    melior Says:
    

    Russert pancaked? What trial are you watching?

    Russert’s testimony is still to come, except in your fantasy land.

    What everyone else saw was Ari Fleischer swearing, under oath and immunity, that Libby lied his little patootie off to the grand jury.

    Please try to stay connected with reality, however tentatively, as your sad little dream world unravels in front of the world.

    January 30th, 2007 at 1:23 am
11. 11
    Weldon Berger Says:
    

    melior: I have to wonder where the contradiction is between Russert turning up in Cathie Martin’s notes as a patsy for the administration, and Fleischer’s testimony about lunch with Scooter. I’m sure your heart’s in the right place, but you owe it to yourself to work on your reading comprehension.

    January 30th, 2007 at 1:34 am
12. 12
    Donald Koelper Says:
    

    Most major media would do well to heed the most obvious lesson of this tawdry spectacle of scandal, and begin to regularly rotate their D.C. press corps assignments in order to restore and then maintain some sense of objectivity.

    It appears obvious that more than a few of the current batch — most of whom have been stationed in Washington for years — have come to identify too closely with both the individuals and subjects they ostensibly cover for their employers, and are thus increasingly prone to becoming active players in their own storylines, rather than passive observers.

    January 30th, 2007 at 5:03 pm