WHERE HAVE YOU GONE, MR. NOVAK??

vanity | 11/03/2005 | Sam Katz

[samkatz]

For two years, the “mainstream media” have published one side of the so-called “Plame Affair”. Commentary that sheds light on the truth about the Wilsons, their agenda or their lies have pretty much been limited to “right wing” media. Think about it. Does anyone you know who is not a regular Freeper or reader of NRO have any perspective other than that of the mainstream press? The answer is probably “no.”

Who is there to tell the real story ? The subjects of the witch-hunt are straight-jacketed by the Grand Jury. No Republican serving in any official capicity can EVER shed light on the Wilson’s motives or affiliations. This would provoke cries of “retaliation” by the left and the media. The shackles on the administration are permanent. Only a respected member of the “mainstream media”can set the record straight. That person is the columnist who started at the center of the probe, Robert Novak.

Novak has information none of us do and a unique perspective. As a potential target of the prosecuter, he remained virtually silent until August 1, 2005. In his column “Correcting the CIA”, Novak corrected misconceptions and distortions about the case. Writing against the advice of his attorneys, he debunked the myth of Ms Plame’s “covert status”. He exposed the lie that Ms. Plame had no role in sending her husband to Niger. http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/robertnovak/2005/08/01/155068.html

Novak, despite his conservative perspective is well respected journalist with a column in the mainstream press, a broad readership, and near celebrity status. Mathew Cooper and Judith Miller have incesantly told their stories in print and electronic media. Novak has an opportunity or even “duty” to give the world the picture it’s not getting, and cap off nearly 50 years of distinguished journalism. Please, Mr. Novak, go do it.

[Cboldt]

Didn't Kovak say he would tell us his source after the GJ reported...

"After the case is concluded," whatever the dickens that means.

But on the June 29 edition of CNN's Inside Politics, host Ed Henry grilled Novak on the extent of his contact with federal prosecutors, asking at one point, "Why is it that there are two reporters out there who may go to jail, Bob, but it doesn't appear that you are going to go to jail?" In response, Novak said he could not comment on the case and claimed he will "reveal all in a column and on the air" once the case has concluded. "Ed, you don't know anything about the case," Novak stated. "And those people who say that don't know anything about the case. And unfortunately, as somebody who likes to write, I'd like to say a lot about the case, but because of my attorney's advice I can't."

In a subsequent interview with The New York Times, Novak again declined to provide additional information regarding his contact with investigators. He asserted that he is not to blame for the fact Miller and Cooper face jail time. Novak reiterated that he will "write a column when the case is closed" and "tell everything I know."

http://mediamatters.org/items/200506300011

[cubreporter]

OK...MSM...Minimum stinking media

[cubreporter]

OK...MSM...Minimum stinking media

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Look, Rush Limbaugh and his protegees get on the air and say "I'm a right winger and this is my take on events". Maureen Dowd, Frank Rich, Will, Krauthammer are columnists who are giving opinions.

. . . But I do think that we have a "right", legally and morally, to complain and air our disgust when print or electronic news people who pretend to be "reporters" are overtly biased.

My point is that legally we have the right to complain because we have First Amendment freedom. Morally we have a right to complain like any other sucker when we have been conned; if it is about a newspaper having a partisan perspective shining through on the front page we have no legal recourse. But when broadcaster says, backed by the imprimatur of the government, that that broadcaster is objective, there is a real legal issue in play.

The truth is that we actually know that no one is objective, which is why the First Amendment makes so much sense. And why no one should be licensed by the government to "objectively" tell us "what is going on." When Krauthammer et al say they are conservative, and then give their opinion, that is honest. But most liberals don't do that, they say "I'm objective" and then they tell whatever whopper they think they might get by with. And they do so in cahoots with all the other "objective" journalists.

[Dolphy]

In reading Novak's brief comments on his role, I remember having the impression that he may have been told Wilson's wife, who worked at the CIA, was involved in his selection. He found out Wilson's wife's name by looking it up in a directory.

[Cboldt]

In reading Novak's brief comments on his role, I remember having the impression that he may have been told Wilson's wife, who worked at the CIA, was involved in his selection. He found out Wilson's wife's name by looking it up in a directory.

Who's Who - by Reed Elsevier. I've heard, but not checked for myself, that it lists one "V. Plame" as his wife, in all editions from 1999 to 2003.

Check your local library for a copy. Most libraries have them dating back several years. Wilson is listed, suprisingly enough, under "Wilson."

[Cboldt]

In reading Novak's brief comments on his role, I remember having the impression that he may have been told Wilson's wife, who worked at the CIA, was involved in his selection. He found out Wilson's wife's name by looking it up in a directory.

Here are some names to file away in the data banks ...

Joseph Wilson a political centrist, was a career United States diplomat from 1976 to 1998. During Democratic and Republican administrations, he served in various diplomatic posts throughout Africa and eventually as ambassador to Gabon. He was the acting ambassador to Baghdad when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, and was the last American official to meet with Saddam before the Gulf War. In 1991, President George H.W. Bush called Wilson a "True American Hero."

At the request of the CIA in February 2002, Wilson investigated reports of Iraq's attempt to buy uranium from Niger. After President George W. Bush claimed in his 2003 State of the Union address that, "Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa," Wilson wrote a New York Times op-ed, "What I Didn't Find in Africa," which outlined his belief that Bush had misled the public.

In October 2003, Wilson received the Ron Ridenhour Prize for Truth-Telling from the Fertel Foundation and the Nation Institute. Also in 2003, columnist Robert Novak disclosed the undercover identity of Wilson's wife, CIA operative Valerie Plame. In The Politics of Truth: A Diplomat's Memoir, Wilson claims that senior administration officials leaked his wife's identity to reporters and manipulated information to support going to war in Iraq. The U.S. Justice Department is currently investigating the leaking of Valerie Plame's undercover identity.

http://www.soprisfoundation.org/indexschedule04.htm

[ladyinred]

Does anyone you know who is not a regular Freeper or reader of NRO have any perspective other than that of the mainstream press? The answer is probably “no.”

That is the case with almost all of the news! As much as I read here that the MSM is not listened to anymore, the real people in my life still believe everything they say.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

There was a time when broadcasters were held to a standard of community service and underwent reviews by the FCC to keep their licenses. Ownership of multiple stations and stations and newspapers in the same market was prohibited. I can't say removing this has improved local broadcasting.

[Cboldt]

Now here is a wild one. Seems Hannity is less than 6 degrees from Wilson.

Wilson won an "Honesty Prize" [!!] from the Fertel Foundation, and the president of the Fertel Foundation is the son of the founder of Ruth's Chris steakhouse.

Randy Fertel
President, The Fertel Foundation

One of the things that made my mother so special is her very special presence. I mean not just how she holds herself but her presentness, how she is there, here, now, with you, not somewhere else, calculating where she wants to get, or what she wants from you, nor stuck in some past elsewhere working a grudge rather than experiencing the moment. She was present tense all the way. Here. Now.

This made her a great businesswoman and a great traveling companion, always there, riding the edge of the present moment, open to what comes. When she came back a couple years ago from a fancy cruise in the Mediterranean I asked her how the food was, expecting to hear raves. "Awful" she said but added: "one time we got off the boat somewhere in Greece and I had the best tomato salad of my life." And there they were: the juicy tomatoes and the feta and olive oil and salt right there before you, and the light of the Greek islands flooding the moment. That is the essence of my mother, the lady from Happy Jack, LA. A tomato salad eaten not in the first-class dining salon but in some marketplace in some nameless Greek town. In my family we argue about he proper way to cut a Creole tomato. Everything -- here, now -- mattered. God is in the details. All of them.

Another way she was present not absent is that, whoever you are, she made no effort to stand above you. Be you grand or not so grand, she assumes you are on equal footing with her and she with you. She doesn't pull rank. I can't tell you how many times as I traveled from steak house to steak house around the country, how many servers and kitchen workers approached me and said, 'You know, I have to tell you: the first time I saw your mother at this restaurant's opening, she was peeling shrimp.' They'd say: 'There she was, the empress of steaks, and everyone is in the weeds and she saw the need to peel shrimp and she jumped right in.' From that they knew they were in the right place. You could tell. Somehow Mom transferred her gift of presence to the people who worked for her and the dishes she served and the tables she set and the restaurants she created around the country. This is part of the magic of Ruth's Chris. Maybe it's the sizzle that does it, but anyway in another sense this presence, this presentness, is the sizzle, the essence of the sizzle, the presence that sizzle helps create. In this world of cookie-cutter dining and Airline Highways everywhere, with Ruth's Chris you are somewhere when you get there. Even on North Broad St. at the very center of New Orleans' oh-so-elegant Mid-City. You don't need to be somewhere else. This is the place, this is where the magic is. Don't look over your shoulder because it's happening right here. Right now. Can you hear it, can you see it, can you smell it, can you taste it? Sizzle. Sizzzle. Sizzzzzle.

http://www.fertel.com/causes/foundation/

[Dolphy]

Yes, Who's Who. Here's Novak's actual quote:

Once it was determined that Wilson's wife suggested the mission, she could be identified as "Valerie Plame" by reading her husband's entry in "Who's Who in America." Link

Thanks for the other link too.

[Dolphy]

That's quite a roster of award recipients.

[E.G.C.]

Media bias bump.

[Anselma]

Yah, MinimumStinkingMedia- whew! How about

ELM= Extreme Left Margin

versus

N M M or "NM squared" for the good guys, the "New Media Majority?

Can you come up with anything with PJ's in the title?
Fraish.

[Anselma]

"That is the case with almost all of the news! As much as I read here that the MSM is not listened to anymore, the real people in my life still believe everything they say."

It's very difficult, if not impossible, to have your say- and with dignity- if you are surrounded by screaming Dems.
I have starting timing them, on their rants to me. Mostly, they assume that I agree with them unless I speak up.

Then I usually have to insist- oh, yes, INSIST, that they calmly allow me to tell them what I think, to be fair-the magic word.

Then I love to finish early, reminding them I didn't take up as much time as they did. Either they are shocked into respecting you or you need different friends.

It's the nature of propaganda to make individuals believe they are in a permanent, shameful minority.

But don't forget it is we who are gaining all across the board: governorships, Presidency, Congress. And now we have new media outlets.

Persistence, Politeness, and Respect is Condi's personal code, she wrote. PPR.

Courage! as Rush would say.

There will be a quiz on this stuff after the weekend :)

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

"Wilson won an "Honesty Prize" [!!] from the Fertel Foundation, and the president of the Fertel Foundation is the son of the founder of Ruth's Chris steakhouse."

UNNGGGGGHHH. But Ruth's founder sold the firm to a newer owner who is the current sponsor, IIRC. Regardless, I don't blame Sean Hannity for the politics of any sponsor. Ruth's used to sponsor Rush, also.

[Lancey Howard]

Good post.
I too have been wondering when Novak is going to live up to his promise to tell all.

[Lancey Howard]

Does anyone you know who is not a regular Freeper or reader of NRO have any perspective other than that of the mainstream press? The answer is probably “no.”

(Ahem) Something very interesting has been going on, something that seems to be happening way below the radar. And it is something that will could very well have a monumental impact on the future of political discourse in this country. No joke.

Where do you think most voters get the bulk of their news? I'll tell you where: Most casual voters get the bulk of their news in their cars, usually during the commute back and forth to work, from those "top-of-the-hour" newscasts that invade our senses every day, whether we listen to rock stations, oldies stations, talk radio, sports talk, whatever.... Many other people get their news AT work from the "soft rock" radio that's piped into the office.

Well, HERE is some good news indeed (from nearly a year ago - - like I said, "below the radar"). And it is just the tip of the iceberg. My understanding is that things are progressing quite nicely as ABC, CBS, and NPR are finding themselves thrown out into the street, one station at a time as their contracts expire.

Regards
LH

[hummingbird]

That we'd laugh.

I think we're about ready for that laugh. I'm sure Mr Libby could use a good chuckle about now, too!

[hummingbird]

Way back when I took journalism classes, they taught that news writers/reporters were supposed to speak in an objective voice etc. Editorialism is a diff standard. So when the Times headlines "Sunni's Fail to Stop Constitution", or Assoc Press in a news release says "yielding to extreme right wing opposition, an embarrassed Pres Bush w/draws Miers"[not a direct quote] do I have a right to be pissed, sure...

Agree 110%...journalism schools used to teach the 5 w's and 1 h. After Woodward & Bernstein, journalism schools flourished and objectivity diminished. Pity.