By now, you've probably all read this story:
Woodward Claim on CIA Leak Disputes Charge
By TONI LOCY and PETE YOST, Associated Press Writers
Wed Nov 16,11:01 PM ET
Bob Woodward's version of when and where he learned the identity of a CIA operative contradicts a special prosecutor's contention that Vice President Dick Cheney's top aide was the first to make the disclosure to reporters.
(snip)
more here
too bad there wasn't a link to Keith Olbermann's story in that same article.
more beneath the fold...
There are many implications to Woodward's belated revelations of his firsthand knowledge of the CIA Leak Case, but the exculpatory "blockbuster" portrayed by Scooter Libby's attorney Ted Wells, is not one of them.
Wells released a beautiful hunk of "chaff" -- the stuff submarine captains expel to try to throw off enemy torpedoes -- in his claim about Woodward's announcement that someone at the White House told him about Valerie Plame in June, 2003. Wells made it seem as if Woodward had just proved that Libby was not the first to leak Plame's name and/or job to a reporter, and that in so doing, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's case had just tumbled to the ground.
But he did it only by altering the truth.
Wells issued a statement at midday, the key passage of which concludes that Woodward's "disclosure shows that Mr. Fitzgerald's statement at his press conference of October 28, 2005 that Mr. Libby was the first government official to tell a reporter about Mr. Wilson's wife was totally inaccurate."
But Fitzgerald never said that.
(snip)
subtlety, not the strong point of the AP.
for that, it takes an idiot like me to point it out to them:
to: info@ap.org
subj:TONI LOCY and PETE YOST "Woodward Claim on CIA Leak Disputes Charge "
I wanted to bring this passage in your article to your attention:
"Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, in announcing the charges, portrayed Libby as the first high-level government official to reveal Plame's identity to reporters in summer 2003."
Why I would want to do this is to point out the minor, yet important error in the statement. From Patrick Fitzgerald's press conference, I quote Patrick Fitzgerald, emphasis mine:
"In fact, Mr. Libby was the first official known to have told a reporter when he talked to Judith Miller in June of 2003 about Valerie Wilson."
source of this quote can be found here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
I consider your statement I quoted from your article above flawed, in the sense that Fitzgerald's own words do not portray Libby as the first high-level government official to reveal Plame's identity to reporters in summer 2003, but the first known high-level government official to reveal Plame's identity to reporters in summer 2003.
Your article as it is currently written does not stand, as Woodward's version of when and where he learned the identity of a CIA operative does not contradict Patrick Fitzgerald's contention that Lewis Libby was the first to make the disclosure to reporters, as Fitzgerlad did not make that contention. He did, however say that Libby was the first known to do so.
As journalists, I am sure the difference is not lost to you, and I would expect to see a correction of this error.
Thank you,
blackfrancis
keith didn't put me up to this, as much as I may have wished, or lied to my friends about.
when you are done with this, go here. it's a much better diary than mine.