Updated with requested summary.
NYT, June 5: Scooter Libby, once one of the most powerful men in government as [V.P.] Dick Cheney's chief of staff, was sentenced today to two and a half years in prison for lying to a grand jury and F.B.I. agents who were investigating the unmasking of a C.I.A. operative during a fierce debate over the war in Iraq.
The testimony in the Libby trial disclosed the sordid press workings that allow this administration's media dis-information campaign: controlling the timing of news reports. When the administration can't stop a story before it publishes, it sends henchmen to control when a story publishes.
"News is what someone wants to suppress," former NBC News president Reuven Frank once said. "Everything else is advertising."
At WaPo, politicians don't have to schedule a "Saturday night Massacre." The Post does it for them. Here's what they've done for their own local favorite corrupt pol, who is running for Senate hoping to join Jim Webb.
Cross Posted on Beltway Progressive.
Special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald has made it clearer than ever that he was hot on the trail of a coordinated campaign to out CIA agent Valerie Plame until that line of investigation was cut off by the repeated lies from Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
WAPO:"With a candor that is frowned upon at the White House, explained Cheney's former top press assistant," Cathie Martin, explained how important it was to influence timing of news reports critical of politicians. "Fewer people pay attention to it later on Friday," Martin testified. "And in our view, fewer people are paying attention on Saturday, when it's reported."
Examples include not only Bob Woodward's involvement in keeping the cover up going in Plamegate, on black hole prisons, and the Ford interview criticizing Bush. They include the Post's baseball buddy, Tom Davis.
The first of several Post stories by Scott Higham and Robert O'Harrow on Tom Davis and his own campaign finance scandal followed this formula. It ran on Friday, July 28, 2006 before the July 4th weekend. Washington, DC was empty by then, and most holiday travelers were on the road. Tom Davis couldn't have asked for better scheduling if he had selected the date himself. But his luck continued.
Because it's customary to complete a series before running the first article, the following articles in this entire series should have been written by that July date. Nevertheless, the next article in the series would not run until the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. During those 4 months, his election was over. Congress had recessed. Again, the city was empty, and most holiday travelers were going through airport security. Davis must have wondered how this good fortune could continue.
But it did last last. The third installment did not run until almost two weeks later, and on a Saturday. Saturday is one of the lowest circulation days for most newspapers.
Additional stories in the Post on Jack Abramoff and Tom Delay don't mention that Davis was one of very few Congressman singled out for donations from Jack Abramoff's tribal clients. They don't mention that he's one of only three Congressmen who received campaign contributions from Abramoff. They don't mention his admission that he knew about Walter Reed in 2004, and that he's named on the famous Lurita Doan / Karl Rove/ GSA slides of candidates who should receive campaign help from federal employees.
These aren't neo-cons who are targeted by the administration. It's reputable journalists who seem otherwise credible. They fall for flattery.
Radar Contact: "It's Our Best Format"
At Libby's trial, Judith Miller's testimony showed how the administration and the press combine forces for access journalism:
In a steady but slightly nervous voice, Miller described how her relationship with Libby began: with a bit of flattery [of her writing].... Miller recalled Libby saying that "he liked my reporting ..."
"You look like a lawyer to me, honey." Taxi's Louie DePalma (Danny DeVito) on the pick up line he uses in a bar he knows where women go after they've learned they flunked the Bar exam.
When she "expressed a desire" for regular conversations, Libby said "he would prefer not to see his name in print," Miller said. "We could continue meeting as long as I would identify him as an administration official or senior administration official." She readily agreed.
So Libby would combat these leaks by leaking to Miller, she explained in a tone that indicated this was the most natural thing in the world.