LA Times: Time Inc may have kept Plame info quiet so as not to harm Bush

[BurtWorm]

in an election year. As reported in salon.com's War Room:

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html


Did Time hide the truth to help Bush win re-election?

The Los Angeles Times takes a long look at Plamegate today. There's little new here -- except for a claim by someone close to Karl Rove that Rove first heard Plame's name from Bob Novak -- but the Times does raise an interesting question along the way. We know now that Rove and Scooter Libby were involved in the outing of Plame. But how is it, the Times asks, that their roles remained secret until after George W. Bush was re-elected?

The answer, at least in part: Their roles remained secret because some members of the mainstream press helped to keep them secret. According to the Times' report, Time magazine's Matthew Cooper chose not to ask for a waiver of confidentiality from Rove until this summer -- in part because his attorney advised against it, and in part because "Time editors were concerned about becoming part of such an explosive story in an election year." As a result, the Times says, "Cooper's testimony was delayed nearly a year, well after Bush's reelection."

Translated, as John Aravosis explains at AMERICAblog today, that means that Time's editors didn't want Cooper to reveal information that could be damaging to Bush's re-elections hopes until after the election was over. "It's one thing for Time to do its job and ignore the effects of its reporting and overall work on US elections," Aravosis writes. "It's quite another for Time to make decisions based on whether they'll influence US elections."

In a way, it may be even worse than that. By not seeking a waiver from Rove -- by not reporting what its reporter knew to be true -- Time allowed Americans to go the polls believing that which the magazine knew to be false. Until Time turned over Matthew Cooper's email messages to Patrick Fitzgerald this July, the White House was free to proclaim -- as it did, repeatedly and vociferously -- that Karl Rove had nothing whatsoever to do with the outing of Valerie Plame. That's the false story Americans had been told when they cast their votes for the presidency in November. Time knew better but didn't say.

[mattclearing]

1. Wasn't that always the suspicion? n/t

[louis-t]

6. Not to sheeple.

Ignorance is bliss, easier to sleep and be lead than to seek the truth.

[BurtWorm]

81. PERMANENT LINK is here

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html?blog=/politics/war_room/2005/08/25/plame/index.html

[Peace Patriot]

83. Yeah, it may be "easier to sleep," but I don't think most Americans WERE

sleeping. In fact, they voted in record numbers last year, and the grass roots activists of the Democratic Party blew the Republicans away in new voter registration in 2004, nearly 60/40. Were all those people flocking to the Dem Party to vote for...Bush?

I think what we had was a combination of, a) Diebold and ES&S controlling the vote tabulation with SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code (Diebold = run by Bush/Cheney campaign chairman; ES&S = funded by far rightwing billionaires); b) the corporate news monopolies FALSIFYING their own exit polls (Kerry won) on election night to "fit" the "official results" fed to them by Diebold's and ES&S's secret formulae (Bush won); AND, c) the corporate news monopolies ALSO creating the ILLUSION that a rightwing minority is a majority, and ignoring all evidence to the contrary--including their own opinion polls on the issues, which have shown for over a year that the great majority of Americans disagree with every major Bush policy, foreign and domestic, way up in the 60% to 70% range, starting way back in Feb. '03, when 58% of Americans opposed the Iraq war BEFORE the invasion.

In short, the great majority of Americans have been disempowered and DISENFRANCHISED!

The remedy? We need...

Paper ballots hand-counted at the precinct level (--Canada does it in one day, although speed should not even be a consideration, just accuracy and verifiability)

or, at the least

Paper ballot (not "paper trail") backup of all electronic voting, a 10% audit (automatic recount), strict security, and NO SECRET, PROPRIETARY PROGRAMMING! (...jeez!).

Join your local election reform group, or form your own, and let's get this done! Throw Diebold and ES&S election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!

For more information and action ideas, see the "DU 2004 Election Results and Discussion Forum," at
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=203

---------

Note: The War Democrats have remained silent about Bushites owning and controlling the election system because...well, they're WAR Democrats. They like war; and they especially like war in the Middle East. There is also a layer of local/state election officials who have been very corrupted--on a bipartisan basis--by Diebold's and ES&S's lavish lobbying. Our election systems have become big business deals, a great temptation to public officials.

Check out this hogfest at the Beverly Hilton this August--a week of fun, sun and high-end shopping for election officials from around the country, sponsored by Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia. It'll make you want to vomit!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x380340

We need a Big Broom, friends. And the Republicans are not the only ones who need their house cleaned.

[BurtWorm]

7. It's unusual to see a mainstream paper report it.

I remember reading about some other paper or network--CNN possibly--withholding a story because they didn't want to appear to be influencing an election involving Bush.

Way to do your jobs, fourth estate. :eyes:

[mattclearing]

12. God forbid people vote with the facts. n/t

[electropop]

77. Disgusting, but not surprising.

I'm happy to see the media begin to turn on its own. Perhaps this will put a dent in that giant BS engine.

[ronnykmarshall]

14. LA Times has been slamming Bush lately

and Arnie.

You should read some of the exploding freeper head letters to the editor.

[Zomby Woof]

18. I read the Times every day

And those letters are a hoot. :D

[ronnykmarshall]

22. You gotta read the yahoo message board.

http://news.messages.yahoo.com/bbs?action=l&board=37138445&tid=latimestsaciacoverblownawhitehouseexposed&sid=37138445&mid=2533

It's total freeper melt down.

[stubtoe]

49. Yowser! That was a rollicking good read.

I just spent 1/2 hour there I hadn't planned to. But thanks!

[mark11727]

76. I hate the Yahoo message boards...

...it's turned into a collection of mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging, Clinton-hating freeper-types.

But I repeat myself.

[BurtWorm]

37. What happened to the LA Times?

Didn't it used to be one of the most fascist papers in the country?

[Cha]

54. That's what I thought and

I'm happy there're still surprises out there with the media.

[Captain Hilts]

64. Otis Chandler died. Dorothy too. (nt)

[tlsmith1963]

58. About Time, Too

I was beginning to wonder if switching from the San Diego Union-Tribune to the LA Times was a mistake because both papers have been so soft on Bush, but maybe the Times is finally starting to be like its' old self again. Now, if they could just change Currents back to Opinion on Sundays & make the section intelligent again, I would be *really* happy. I mean, come on! Who cares about silly celebrity stories? Bring back the political stuff!

Tammy

[Gay Green]

59. Yes! The more intelligent the paper, the better!

If they still want to run celebrity gossip they can always add Parade.

[rodeodance]

23. this is salon.com story (talking about the LATimes piece of today).

in an election year. As reported in salon.com's War Room:

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html


Did Time hide the truth to help Bush win re-election?

The Los Angeles Times takes a long look at Plamegate today. There's little new here -- except for a claim by someone close to Karl Rove that Rove first heard Plame's name from Bob Novak -- but the Times does raise an interesting question along the way. We know now that Rove and Scooter Libby were involved in the outing of Plame. But how is it, the Times asks, that their roles remained secret until after George W. Bush was re-elected?

[Daphne08]

66. The media is supposed to be working for us, the citizens!

Strange how that's worked out, huh?

[moc]

2. Bastards

:grr:

[SammyWinstonJack]

10. Yes they are.

:grr:

[Melodybe]

3. Kicked and nominated

never, ever, ever forget that AOL/Time/Warner is mostly owned by the Saudis.

[Jane Austin]

29. What percentage do they own?

Thanks.

[Melodybe]

34. Not sure, the Wall Stree Journal issue that I read that in didn't say

it just mentioned that Ted Turner was the largest single share holder and that a group of Saudis owned a majority of the stock.

[EVDebs]

4. Operation Mockingbird and military use of PsyOps domestically

Really if M$M just would follow up on Carl Bernstein's groundbreaking article The CIA and The Media, Oct. 1977 Rolling Stone, they would be able to wipe the egg off their faces today.

In addition, follow up on counterpunch.com's article CNN and PsyOps by Alexander Cockburn and the 2000 election for crying out loud...it happened again in 2004 but nothing is said...again.

BTW, one more vote and this goes 'greatest page'.

And Disney owns ABC which owns KSFO who pays Melanie Morgan. If that isn't enough to gag a maggot on a gut wagon.

[wli]

31. why do we believe a word of what the MSM says?

It's all fake. It's all Pentagon propaganda. Why is it legitimate to cite the NYT or CNN etc.? Why do they have any more credibility than Arctic Beacon or Wayne Madsen?

[EVDebs]

51. Precisely. Even CNN's new documentary on "Dead Wrong" says

the whole damn thing was an 'intelligence failure' and blames the agencies, not those who politicized the agencies and stovepiped the erroneous data and suppressed the truthful data.

It then took whistleblowers to get the truth out, but whistleblowers are being retaliated upon...and liars get medals.

Deception has its merits and demerits. You don't always get away with it. Stalin, and then Churchill, said something like 'truth is so precious it must have a bodyguard of lies' or something like that. The rightwingnuts thrive on lies. They thought that since FDR got away with hiding foreknowledge of Pearl Harbor that they now are entitled to have their own New Pearl Harbor. Trouble is FDR & company really cared about this country, neocons care only about profits, corporate 'people', and the appearance of having power.

They will lose all that on their present course, whether Op Mockingbird, PsyOps, or whatever lie factories they put out there say.

[mom cat]

5. Outrageous.....Time = Pravda

[WCGreen]

8. every DU'er should cancel their subscriptions to Time

and boycott everything related to Time Warner Inc....

Fascism, the melding of corporate power with political might.....

[ronnykmarshall]

15. Canceled mine in 2000

when they name the boy king "Man of the Year".

[WCGreen]

25. yea really

[City Lights]

27. Me too!

:hi:

Along with Newsweek, USNews and World Report and my local rag.

No regrets.

[Kilroy003]

20. That's like half the world...

I sent a letter to Parenting Magazine a few days ago and got a response from a Time, Inc. lawyer. I had no idea that Parenting was owned by the overlords.

I wonder how many magazines are actually self operated, if any?

[Panda1]

30. Already did...

...when they put Coulter on the cover.

[WCGreen]

32. Skankiness reaches a new high

[PinkyisBlue]

75. Ann Coulter

She was on Hannity and Colmes tonight, and boy is she abrasive. She keeps repeating her same talking points over and over. She said Cindy Sheehan and the war protesters are so small in number they are inconsequential. If they're so inconsequential, why did she spend so much time talking about them?

[blm]

35. Cancelled right after 9-11. Knew then they were covering for BushInc.

when they failed to point out how Bush refused to read the HartRudman report on Global Terror that was handed to him Jan 30, 2001.

[WCGreen]

36. cool.... They understand numbers.....

[Nite Owl]

9. Who in the corporate media

didn't follow the same line of reasoning? Remember the story about the box on *'s back during the first debate and how the NYT had the proof and refused to write about it because it would effect the elction outcome. It isn't what they report as much as what they don't that makes the media complicit in everything that is happening. As long as truths are kept from the public we cannot say we are a democracy.

[Nothing Without Hope]

62. Not having a democracy also has to do with the stolen elections and the

existence of an electronic voting system that allows traceless hacking of votes on order. No other country in the world would have allowed this, it is so outrageously anti-democratic and corrupt.

[jasmeel]

11. concerned about becoming part of such an explosive story???

Isn't that their fucking JOB!!!

[yorkiemommie1]

13. complicit , cowardly and to blame

for another 4 years of this miserable failure. more blood on their hands !

[progressivebydesign]

16. 'didn't want to be part of an explosive story in an election year'????

Umm.. WTF has happened to the media? I thought that was WHY the Founding Fathers gave special props to th media, so that they WOULD raise those issues when appropriate. This is not an isolated incident.

[Stephanie]

19. because they've been intimidated into silence - don't want to be Rathered

[Lerkfish]

24. that's a patently false excuse no media would bypass an explosive

story. That's what sells magazines, newspapers.

Obviously, if that's their excuse, they're lying to cover up complicity.

[deutsey]

17. But why would a member of the Liberal Media(TM) do that?

:sarcasm:

[gasperc]

21. they were afraid of it being explosive in an election year

doesn't that say it all

[rodeodance]

26. Kick

[shadowknows69]

28. They're all blaming each other for not stopping the war

Time inc caused it now huh? fuck you LA times you're all at fault in this mess. enjoy the blood on your hands.

[nolabels]

33. Here, here, I second that motion

Contemptuous bastards thought everybody wouldn't know any better. Don't buy their junk propaganda, turn off the tube and hang out at your local internet chat room to get the inside scoop on...........

Internet Usage Growth 2000 - 2005

According to our records, as of July 21, 2005 there are 938,710,92 Internet users in the world. This corresponds to a 14.6% penetration rate for the world, based on a total population estimate of 6,420,102,722. The five year growth percentage to date is 160.0 %. The Internet growth in each world region is as follows, ordered by penetration rate:
(snip)
http://www.internetworldstats.com/pr/edi008.htm

[quiet.american]

38. Ironically, they DID influence the election by withholding the story

You'd think those with journalism degrees would be able to figure that out.

[Jim Sagle]

68. Of course they figured it out. That was their plan, to rig the election

for w.

[glitch]

39. Collaborators. Don't they get the same sentence as traitors? nt

[smoogatz]

40. Colossal breach of professional ethics.

Whatever happened to trying to report the truth, and letting the political chips fall where they may? The media owe NOTHING to the politicians, and EVERYTHING to their readers. How did they forget this basic tenet of journalism?

[The Backlash Cometh]

41. I think it's time to start rating our newspaper journalists.

First, we should review why exactly the First Amendment was passed in the first place. It was because a thriving democracy required that the people be kept informed about the facts that affected them in their daily lives, and it assumed that newspapers would help keep the vigilance if they were allowed to write those facts down without fear of legal repercussions. Now it looks like the The Times failed in its prime directive. The question now is, what punishment do we, the people, want to impose on the Washington Post?

[Amonester]

45. True. It assumed the newspapers would help keep the vigilance

and, by ricochet, it also assumed that the owners of the newspapers would never become rich to the point that they can become partisan of just one party (the one that grants these same owners tax cuts after tax cuts so they can bolster the value of their options, and on, and on....round 'n round they go...so don't be surprised when they want one party, and no opposition, or an "opposition" that is in cahoots with the one party that's always re-elected by the machines, no matter what and perhaps even when the party they adore will get negative approval ratings!!!!)

Something has gone wrong with the system. Who will reform it now? Is it too late?

[The Backlash Cometh]

53. The American spirit of journalism lives in the blogs.

I just hope they do a better job of editing their work than I have been doing these last two days. Puh! I write "no WMDs" when I meant "WMDS" and I just recommended we punish the Washington Post for something the Times did. Puh! No excuse for such sloppy work. At this rate, I'll qualify for a job in the MSM.

[Gay Green]

60. I know what I want to do with the Washington Post!

Seize it by eminent domain and then turn around and sell it to Putin.

[brettdale]

42. kick

kick

[ClintonTyree]

43. God-damned Liberal Media!

:eyes:
I can't add anything that hasn't already been said. Disgraceful. :banghead: :banghead:

[Straight Shooter]

44. Pandering to the lowest common denominator.

No wonder we're in such a dire state of affairs in this country. By the time the truth comes out, so many have been brainwashed for so long, they wouldn't know the truth if it walked up and introduced itself personally.

Time magazine isn't worth the paper it's printed on.

[neuvocat]

46. Is it just me

or has the link been scrubbed?

[Amonester]

47. On edit: Salon's link has changed now.

This one works for me:

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html?blog=/politics/war_room/2005/08/25/plame/index.html

[Al-CIAda]

48. ,

[Dr Fate]

50. What has Dean, Kerry, Hilary, Obama, Reid etc said about this today?

???

[savemefromdumbya]

80. Are all our Senators still vacationing on the beach

It's summer. You can't expect them to?

[Cha]

52. So it looks like Timeinc is in

part responsible for getting bush in again to face his failings.

Another law of Unintended Consequences..be careful what you're suppressing news for.

I and many others have maintained that it's The Media Stupid! If we had a working media in this country like some other country's then we wouldn't be neck high in shite.

[gumby]

55. Additional comments

Bob Somerby at http://dailyhowler.com has been very good the last few days.

The question always comes down to... WHY?

Then I remembered the infamous Sally Quinn article from ***1998***
It's still available; read it and puke http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/stories/quinn110298.htm

Is there any other name for the M$M other than "Out-And-Out-Class-War"? It seems abundantly clear that the M$M functions for the sole purpose of printway robbery. :puke:

[tlsmith1963]

56. It's All Time's Fault!!!

It's all Time's fault that we are stuck with Bush for four more years. I say we should boycott! Anyone with me?

Tammy

[blue state liberal]

65. Time and Newsweek

After many years I finally cancelled Time last year but still have Newsweek. When I perused the most recent issue of Newsweek (the Spirituality cover story) and didn't see ONE SINGLE WORD about Cindy Sheehan and Camp Casey I decided that's it --- no more Newsweek! I say we boycott all the Bushy rags too.

[PinkyisBlue]

74. Newsweek Propaganda

Did you read the puff piece in August 22's Newsweek magazine about Bush's emotional meetings with families of soldiers killed in Iraq? The article portrays Bush as genuinely compassionate during his meetings with grieving families and crying real tears with them. I read it, and immediately the word "propaganda" came to my mind. It seems like it was written and published to counteract the enormous effect Cindy Sheehan is having on Bush's image. (I also posted this same message in another thread).

But nary a word about Camp Casey and the war protesters.

[me b zola]

57. .

[VPStoltz]

61. This reminds me of the deal the 9/11 commission struck with *

Apparently, the 9/11 commission agreed (and I wonder what they got out of the deal) not to release the rock solid information that * knew about a potential attack using planes during the election cycle. We are fucking in a dictatorship let's face it.

[Jacobin]

63. There's a shocker

:eyes:

As if anyone thinks this is NOT true.

[Hekate]

67. During the Vietnam War Time also lied and held back information

Crap. The more things change, the more they remain the same.

Hekate
:argh:

[autorank]

69. Burnt, you're always on point. Of course they did, and fuck them for

being Quislings! They are the very worst, well not really but they're in the top three of filth:

:puke:Faux everything
:puke:Time
:puke:Newsweek/WaPost (aka PentaPost)

[longship]

70. The fucking bastards.

I'm speechless.
:grr:

[iconoclastNYC]

71. You think?

Uh yeah.

I wish Michael Moore or some other good film maker would come out with a theatrical release every year around the time of the state of the union to counter the BULLSHIT.

We have to become the mainstream media.

[despairing optimist]

72. Dare I say that there's good news in all this?

One major MSM organ is holding another's feet to the fire. The public is being informed, albeit late in the game. Conclusion: all hell is about to break loose, and media such as the LA Times, Salon, and Vanity Fair are distancing themselves as competitors to get a leg up on Time magazine. Fasten your seat belts; it's going to be a bumpy ride.

A comment about Time: it's the name of a magazine as well as the name of Time Warner's magazine division, namely Time Inc. Editors are management and have a lot in common with suit types, while reporters are likely toiling in union-protected positions (Newspaper Guild). What the editors and suits say generally goes, overruling reporters and fact-checkers. Oops, I forgot to add the lawyers. Lawyers work for management to cover corporate ass too. So try not to beat up on the reporters too much. Hasn't anyone around here ever held a job wherein they've had to swallow a lot in order to stay on? Why should reporters be held to a different standard? Before you answer, I encourage you to try on their shoes for a while and set aside that broad brush. And if that doesn't work, try setting up a magazine with a worldwide circulation in the millions on a shoestring. That's why reporters stay on; they can't do it either.

What many on this thread are assuming is sort of right, but likely for the wrong reasons. It was not out of any love for Bush and his gang that Time covered up this story, but likelier to cover ass. Not that that makes much difference in the end, but merely points to the first priority of any corporation, media or otherwise: survival. Here's another "duh" statement: corporations are amoral, and it is up to all citizens to keep the pressure on them and hold them accountable. Otherwise only government officials, PR flaks, and rich advertisers will.

No one said freedom would be easy. You have to fight for it, and the struggle never ends. The press has been at one another's throats since the dawn of papyrus and sheepskin scrolls--at the very least. Put this latest episode in historical perspective, and don't lose sight of the goal: to hold everyone accountable for what's been devolving in this republic for the past half-century or more. Keep the pressure on the fickle suits, lawyers, advertisers, and management types in MSM who hold the reporters in check; and don't throw out the baby with the bathwater.

[Usrename]

84. Isn't there an implied warranty of merchantability when you purchase

a newspaper? I mean that they KNEW (no second source required) that the White House was lying about Rove's involvement for years. They didn't just ignore the lie, they played along with it. Shouldn't they be required to call themselves a "misinformation outfit" or "propaganda organization" and not be allowed to call themselves a news organization.

I never had a subscription but if I did I would sure want my money back.

[Bluebear]

73. kick

[specimenfred1984]

78. You Can Bet "Time" Sits On More Stories Than That

I bet they are sitting on numerous torture stories, numerous conspiracy stories, election rigging stories, 9-11 coverup stories, etc...

Propaganda, it's what they do.

[Dr Fate]

79. What has Dean, Kerry, Hilary, Obama, Reid etc said about this today?

????

[FreeStateDemocrat]

82. Time has always been a front for repukes starting with founder Henry Luce