BY DAN
KENNEDY
Serving the reality-based community since 2002.
Notes and observations on
the press, politics, culture, technology, and more. To sign up for
e-mail delivery, click
here. To send
an e-mail to Dan Kennedy, click
here.
For bio, published work, and links to other blogs, visit
www.dankennedy.net.
Thursday, December 04, 2003
The Plame game. Media Log
reader K.W. is very excited that Valerie Plame, the former undercover
CIA operative outed by the White House last summer, has allowed
herself to be photographed by Vanity Fair. (For my earlier
take on the scandal, click
here.)
The pertinent fact is that her
husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson of Nigerien-yellowcake
fame, had claimed she would rather "chop off her right arm" than have
her picture taken.
Writes K.W.: "Will you not concede
that this was a bogus 'scandal' hatched by Mr. Wilson and spurred on
by Democrats and a left leaning press (you included) who are just
desperate to bring Bush down. Just wondering if you'll say 'my bad'
on this one?"
Well, uh, no. And no.
K.W. directed me to this
piece
by Slate's Timothy Noah, who labels Wilson's previous
insistence that his wife would remain invisible the "Whopper of the
Week." Noah also predicts that this "will surely give the Bush
Justice Department whatever slim justification it seeks in dropping
its Plamegate investigation."
Glenn "InstaPundit" Reynolds is
very
excited, too:
No word on whether she's
missing an arm.... Wilson says the pictures won't identify her.
Sorry -- if you're really an undercover spy, and really worried
about national security, you don't do this sort of thing. Unless,
perhaps, you're a self-promoter first, and a spy second. Or your
husband is.
Let's concede that this wasn't
smart. Wilson was already hurting the cause with his aggressive media
whoredom. By letting herself be photographed -- albeit unrecognizably
-- Plame has harmed her image of being more serious, and thus more
credible, than her husband.
But what has changed? Plame's
career as an undercover agent was over last July, when syndicated
columnist Robert Novak passed along that sleazy little tidbit from
his pals at the White House. If Novak's act endangered the projects
Plame was working on and the people she associated with, the fact
that we now have some vague idea of what she looks like doesn't
affect that.
As Noah suggests, seeming to enjoy
this too much may destroy any hopes of getting to the bottom of this.
But that doesn't mean there isn't a bottom to be gotten
to.
New in this week's
Phoenix. New England Cable News will air a nuanced
documentary
on the life and times of the notorious Father Paul Shanley, who faces
numerous criminal and civil complaints alleging that he sexually
abused children. (Click here
for more information and video clips.)
Also, the Boston Globe is
losing
two key staffers.
posted at 12:00 PM |
|
link
MEDIA LOG ARCHIVES
Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
