One week from when Leopold said Rove was already indicted, 6 days after he said the man had "24 Hours?" Then what? Will you call Will Pitt and ask him how long you should delay further speculation? Maybe he can extend your disbelief out a full month? That Rove indictment would be a good story... heck, I can wait at least another week for it myself. I'm glad this is getting all secretive and "hush hush" now--for a while I was worried it was all BS--but the fact that they're refusing to talk about it MUST make it true! Whoopee!!! Thanks for the reassurance, I'll try my darndest to be patient.

by twalling (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 2 comments) on Wednesday, May 17, 2006 at 3:48:51 PM

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I was the first of all of my hyper-vigilant colleagues to announce the Rove indictment. It was a great moment for me and our country. We all danced and sang. Then no news...no news. But I saw something very telling on Hardball on Tues. Chris (I used to be a liberal, now I'm just nutty) Matthews asked Michael Isikoff and a NYT reporter if there was any news on indictments and they said no but were all looking at each other like teenagers who've just been caught and one of them just made up the lie and wants to make sure the rest are getting it. I pray that that wasn't a wishful projection on the part of one who so desperately wants to watch these guys go down.

by Becky Burgwin (5 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 5 comments) on Wednesday, May 17, 2006 at 4:04:14 PM

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The consensus on the Jason Leopold/Karl Rove story seems to be that Jason Leopold's worth as a professional and a person (hero vs. dead meat) depends on whether Karl Rove is indicted in the very, very near future. However, the situation, while it still hangs in the balance, has great potential for updating a hoary old journalism tradition. This anachronism is the reporter's obligation to protect anonymous sources ad infinitum. Judith Miller covered herself with glory by going to jail in this grand tradition - though later there were questions about other less noble motivations. Custom says that the absolute obligation of confidentiality to anonymous sources serves truth and the common good. Anonymous sources deserve this protection because they are whistleblowers who risk a great deal to tell truths that society needs to hear. That may have been true in the era of the muckrakers, when so much journalistic tradition hardened. And there is a danger in over-idealizing the past. But now anonymous sources are sometimes deliberately deceptive, using reporters as missiles. Protecting false sources does NOT serve the common good, and cannot be ethically justified on that basis. Jason Leopold said about his sources for the Rove story, "If they led me astray, they would no longer be anonymous sources." His apparent disregard of this rigid tradition has raised some shocked eyebrows. Societies do not make ethical judgments or set ethical standards by looking up rules. They tell stories (also known as precedents) until everyone hears a new story, gathers around a new consensus. When a family has to figure out what to do about Grandma, they don't look up a rule. They tell stories around the kitchen table until in the morning they know what to do. That is our case-based ethical and legal tradition. The old rule that treats all anonymous sources the same way doesn't work any more. Jason Leopold's case points journalism and society toward a new ethics of anonymous sourcing, that protects the common good and the sources who deserve it, and that may choose to expose false sources who do not deserve protection.

by Karchomsky (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments) on Thursday, May 18, 2006 at 2:36:42 AM

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I know that of all people that have shaped Bush and Republican policy and has helped Corporate America at the expense of the common People, this guy getting formerly indicted (as if 5 trips 'on the carpet' wasn't enough) would boost my morale and sense of justice, and the reverse is true. I have all but given up hope in America, the illusion of 'freedom and democracy', seeing many companies leaving the US like a ship moored at the docks with the rats running away as fast as they can before it sinks coming down the ropes securing it to the docks. I'm sure during a time when the polls and confidence in the Bush Administration is largely falling, they do not want to see their number one political strategist and Media diversionary bombadier director get removed as has Delay, Libbey, Ney, Abramof, Ken Lay, and so many others tied directly to them come under fire but we don't hear about it. I would not be surprised if we find out there were media blackout orders along with Gestapo type 'shock and awe' investigative repercussions and interror gations to try and sniff out any info leakers. I see it, others see it, it's not about justice or managing a country, or governing it, it's now about managing a decline for damage control in hopes to replace with a new person who they have been grooming to cozy up to same political base and deceive again the ill informed masses. I'm willing to hold my breath, I still have some SCUBA gear around here somewhere...and will curse the day I find out it was just the next ruse, concerned only with CYA ops, rather than actually directing and orchestration the success of a nation. Look around. Bankruptcies on the rise, people can hardly drive, and the only thing we see is Bush taking care of his lobbyists and those they represent, and leaving everyone else, mostly blind and jaded loyalists to rot in the mess they did not intend to vote him into, but see now how he used Rove to garnish the Right, and now damage done it doesn't matter, and the only thing people can do is push for censureship and impeachment, if only we can have Reps in Congress do the same. I don't expect that unless they too suffer with inflation, no job security, homes being confiscated, cars we can't drive, jobs that have left, no affordable medical insurance, children left behind that are our future, and a National Defense used as offense to aggress and bankrupt this country with the MIC (military industrial complex) and the shareholders of the Carlyle Group, Haliburton/KBR defense industry profiting along side the petroleum industry in record numbers and unapologetically. Rove needs to see justice. He is a shrewd political operative, and like a game of chess, would be considered a world class champion with moves far ahead of what we know, likely with protections in place, or he would have went down with I. Libby, and is likely to be still masterminding more media diversions in an attempt to mitigate the known crimes or repercussions. I wish to see real justice, not a mockery of it. How can law and order be expected if not done at the top? I have very small faith in 'the system' and if Rove doesn't go down with the rest of the indicted criminals, there will be none left, and I will seek out a new place to call home, where I can be proud to live, and at least feel safe that I will be in a civil nation once again. Dreaming? Maybe. I just don't put my logic aside anymore when they say 'trust me/all will be better' anymore. First time, shame on me. Second time. Shame on me again. Third time, fourth time, fifth time, will it stop?

by sentientone (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments) on Thursday, May 18, 2006 at 10:02:54 AM

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