David Corn: How I broke the CIA-leak story, and why nobody noticed

[Dudley_DUright]

I fought the Republican spin machine, and the Republican spin machine won.

The battlefield was a Fox News Channel studio. I had been booked to discuss my new book (plug, plug: The Lies of George W. Bush: Mastering the Politics of Deception), but I was also told I would be talking about the Wilson-CIA-leak affair. That was natural, for (plug, plug) I was the first journalist to report that a July 14 piece by conservative columnist Robert Novak was possible evidence of a possible White House crime. In that article, Novak, citing “senior administration officials,” disclosed that the wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson was a CIA operative. Wilson had challenged the administration on its Iraq policy — particularly its use of the (now infamous and still unproven) claim that Saddam Hussein had been uranium shopping in Niger — and the column seemed to be an administration effort to undermine or punish Wilson. The leakers also may have broken a federal law prohibiting the identification of covert officers. I noted that in The Nation two days after the Novak column appeared. But the leak did not become major news until two months later, when the CIA asked the Justice Department to investigate the White House.

The White House and its Republican compatriots then scrambled to control the damage. GOP talking points whizzed throughout town. The primary goal of the Bush defenders has been to depict the scandal as no more than a political tussle. They have questioned its significance. (Maybe Wilson’s wife was merely a secretary at the CIA, said Crossfire’s Tucker Carlson, after it had been reported she was a counter-proliferation officer.) And they have maligned Wilson in an ugly blame-the-victim campaign. They declared — what do you know? — that Wilson was a partisan Democrat and that he was too enthusiastically calling attention to the scandal. (Wilson, who had been a career diplomat, and his wife have mostly contributed to Democrats, but they did give money to Bush’s primary campaign in 2000.) One Republican aide told a reporter that the GOP had concocted a “slime and defend” strategy.

I ran smack into the Republican dissembling when I found myself on Fox News facing Representative Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican who is chair of the House Republican Leadership. The moderator began with him. As an exercise in spin dissection, it is worth closely examining his opening statement:

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http://www.laweekly.com/ink/printme.php?eid=47716

[Cha]

1. Kick

:kick:

[Metatron]

2. Thanks - good article n/t

[Dudley_DUright]

3. You're welcome

and another welcome to DU. :toast:

[KoKo]

4. He should have declined to appear on Faux. His book didn't get promoted

and it's the kind of "no win" situation where you can't debate because the format and the person opposite you doesn't know the meaning of the words: discuss or dibate.

Corn ended up feeling bad he couldn't get a word in and no one cared about his book. Progressives and Dems should refuse to appear on FAUX. It actually hurts us more than helps us. Let the conservatives agree or argue with each other. Who needs that kind of crap.

[benfranklin1776]

5. Great article. Quite educational on the propagandistic arts of the Rethugs

Always ceaselessly striving to convince folks that a steaming pile of hog manure is really caviar.