Palast: Judy, Karl Rove ain't no "source." >

[Stephanie]

Greg Palast tells it like it is. These are the same points I've been reading on DU recently. Good work, Mr. Palast!

http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=444&row=0

MR. ROVE AND THE ACCESS OF EVIL
Tell us your "source," Judy
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
By Greg Palast

The only thing more evil, small-minded and treasonous than the Bush Administration's jailing Judith Miller for a crime the Bush Administration committed, is Judith Miller covering up her Bush Administration "source."

Judy, Karl Rove ain't no "source." A confidential source -- and I've worked with many -- is an insider ready to put himself on the line to blow the whistle on an official lie or hidden danger. I would protect a source's name with my life and fortune as would any journalist who's not a craven jerk (the Managing Editor of Time Magazine comes to mind).

But the weasel who whispered "Valerie Plame" in Miller's ear was no source. Whether it was Karl Rove or some other Rove-tron inside the Bush regime (and no one outside Bush's band would have had this information), this was an official using his official info to commit a crime for the sole purpose of punishing a real whistleblower, Joseph Wilson, Plame's husband, for questioning our President's mythological premise for war in Iraq.

***

Part of her oddball defense is that The Times never ran the story about Wilson's wife. They get no points for that. The Times should have run the story with the headline: BUSH OPERATIVE COMMITS FELONY TO PUNISH WHISTLEBLOWER. The lead paragraph should have been, "Today, Mr. K--- R--- attempted to plant sensitive intelligence information on The New York Times, a felony offense, in an attempt to harm former Ambassador Joseph Wilson who challenged the President's claim regarding Iraq's nuclear program."

***

Every rule has an exception. My mama always told me to compliment the chef at dinner. But that doesn't apply when the chef pees in your soup. Likewise, there's an exception to the rule of source protection. When officialdom uses "you-can't-use-my- name" to cover a lie, the official is not a source, but a disinformation propagandist -- and Miller and The Times have been all too willing to play Izvestia to the Bush's Kremlinesque prevarications. And that is what Miller is protecting: the evil called "access."

<more at link>

[Stephanie]

1. paging David Zephyr...

[arwalden]

2. Great Writing...

thanks!

[The Magistrate]

3. An Excellent Piece By Mr. Palast, Ma'am

Thank you for sharing it with us.

[BeFree]

4. Thanks...Palast makes a VERY good point

That point is: What should a journalist do in such a case?

In this case, as Palast points out, it was not a good deed which started the ball rolling. It was a dirty deed, done dirt cheap with bad intentions. It was a CRIME. Never should a journalist aid and abet any crime, or criminal.

In the Plame case, as with many others these days, we do see journalists aiding and abetting crimes and the criminals who commit them, eh?

[gratuitous]

5. That, my friends, is a professional journalist

Read the column and savor it. There's a reason that Greg Palast has to live and work in England, and it has everything to do with the media conglomerates who control our discourse and who are scared to death of imperiling their exalted and unearned status as information gatekeepers.

[Stephanie]

7. Palast lives in NY now

[truth2power]

6. Excellent! Excellent!

"Every rule has an exception. My mama always told me to compliment the chef at dinner. But that doesn't apply when the chef pees in your soup."

That's the best analogy for all this talk about "protecting sources" that I've heard in a long while. :toast:

[Buns_of_Fire]

8. Well, since Judy Miller ain't no "journalist," either...

(feel free to finish that sentence any way you see fit)

[loudsue]

9. Palast is my hero.

The guy is not only a great writer, he sees things, clearly, for what they are.


:kick::kick::kick:

[truth2power]

10. Judy said she couldn't say what she knows...

A couple of days ago, someone posted a quote here. Miller supposedly said, as she was on her way to jail, (paraphrasing) that she couldn't testify to what she knows because, "the government is too powerful." I'll see if I can find the quote.

Maybe she's afraid she'll be "suicided". Anyone want to comment on this? If it's true that she fears for her life, isn't there some way she could be protected?

Actually, as I'm writing this I'm thinking that assuming a HIGH profile would be the best way to assure her safety, I'm thinking of Sibel Edmonds.

Thoughts?

edit: typo

[fishnfla]

11. The only sure thing thus far: Rove is damaged goods

No reporter gonna trust anything he says on double or triple super duper secret background with a cherry on top, nor on the record or anyway.

He has outed himself as a liar and a hack and a partisan shill. Is there an official WH position for that?

[Stephanie]

12. Commander in Chief

Also, VP.

[Beelzebud]

13. Why is this man not working in the American press?

Oh wait. He's a real journalist that tells it like it is. Nevermind.

[Bluebear]

14. kickarooni