Although other people have diaried the issue of Scott McClellan revealing that George Bush was the one who lied to him about the outing of Valerie Plame, Joe Wilson and Valerie herself are having their say today about what that act constituted: treason. Their point is that the Mainstream Media are yet again complicit with the Bush Administration.
We knew this, but read on for their point of view, which was posted yesterday in the Huffington Post.
The Wilsons state:
Now we learn from the president's former press secretary, Scott McClellan, that the president himself "was involved" in sending him out to lie to the American public about the betrayal. If his direction to McClellan was deliberate and knowing, then the president was party to a conspiracy by senior administration officials to defraud the public. If that isn't a high crime and misdemeanor then we don't know what is. And if the president was merely an unwitting accomplice, then who lied to him? What is he doing to punish the person who misled the president to abuse his office? And why is that person still working in the executive branch? Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald made clear his suspicions about the culprit when he said "a cloud remains over the office of the vice president."
We all know that Bush feels himself above the law. On his own, he would do nothing to punish anyone who misled him, but it is more likely that Bush knowingly misled McClellan.
So, where is the outrage in the corporate media? When will their complicity with this degradation of the Presidency, and, more generally, our democracy, end?
The Washington press corps, whose pretension is to report and interpret events objectively, has been compromised in this matter as evidence presented in the courtroom demonstrated. Prominent journalists acted as witting agents of Rove, Libby and Armitage and covered up this serious breach of U.S. national security rather than doing their duty as journalists to report it to the public.
If you think there is actual remorse in the corporate media for its complicity in getting us into Iraq, you're deluding yourself. If there were any remorse at all, they would stop shilling for the President once and for all. But no....
Instead, the mainstream press has compounded its complicity by giving the Bush administration yet another free pass and shifting blame. The New York Times failed to publish an article on McClellan's revelation and The Washington Post buried it at the end of a column deep on page A-15 in the newspaper. Earlier in the week, Newsweek magazine, owned by the Washington Post Company, proudly announced the identity of its new star columnist -- Karl Rove, one of the key actors in this collective treason.
Most galling:
One reporter from a major news organization even asked whether McClellan's statement wasn't just "another Wilson publicity stunt." Try following this tortuous logic: Dick Cheney runs an operation involving senior White House officials designed to betray the identity of a covert CIA officer and the press responds by trying to prove that the Wilsons are publicity seekers. What ever happened to reporting the news? Welcome to Through the Looking Glass.
It's not just President Bush who has degraded his office, but the Republican party in general, as evidenced by the continuing behavior of their Presidential candidates:
Today, Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson has tried to build his support through fronting for the Scooter Libby Defense fundraising efforts. Meanwhile, other Republican candidates accuse Patrick Fitzgerald of being "a runaway prosecutor" and remain silent about the stain on Bush's presidency.
Where is the outrage? Where is the "contempt and anger?"
Only Olbermann, Matthews (tweety does something right!), and David Shuster have told it like it is, according to the Wilsons.
Eh hem, where is CONGRESS? (except for Dennis Kucinich)
Don't even go there.