Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Rove-ing Around

The cowardly, corporate mainstream media have been ominously but predictably silent about the allegations that Rove is the mysterious (yeah--some mystery) source of the Valerie Plame/CIA leak. Rove himself has refused to comment on the allegations while Democrats like John Conyers have been urging him to explain his role in Plame's outing. And all the while, the American public receives its daily dose of shark attacks, tropical storms, and competitions to host the Olympics. Important stories? Perhaps. But there's a lot more important stuff going on, and we're IN THE DARK.

Googlezon notes that, like the Downing Street Memos, if this story is going to sprout legs, it is not the mainstream media (and DEFINITELY not FOX) who will get it running, but the blogosphere.

Editor & Publisher says in an opinion column that Cooper and Miller should essentially rat Rove out--that the pledge to keep your sources anonymous doesn't apply to fat liars who are playing your game and using you to advance some ill-conceived ends. I agree with that: journalistic values are no more important, in principle or in practice, than values generally. They are not sacred because we append the word "journalism" to them and link them conceptually to the US Constitution via the 1st Amendment. Loyalty is a value. It is good to be loyal to your friends. When a friend is disloyal to you, you may forgive it and forget it and remain loyal to them. But when there is a repeated pattern of disloyalty, and this "friend" screws you over, again and again--well how far do you take "loyalty" in this case before you admit to yourself you're a doormat?

If Rove is the anonymous source, I say TURN HIM IN.

And while we're at it. what's with the kid-glove treatment of Robert Novak?

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