This is pretty amazing:
Lawyers for NBC News reporter Tim Russert suspected in the spring of 2004 that his testimony could snare Vice President Cheney’s top aide, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, in a lie and Russert resisted testifying at the time about private conversations with Libby, according to court papers released yesterday.
Russert was aware that a special prosecutor probing the leak of a CIA operative’s name knew of his summer 2003 telephone conversation with Libby, and that Libby had released him from any promise of confidentiality. But Russert, the Washington bureau chief for NBC News and host of “Meet the Press,” and his attorneys argued in previously sealed court filings in June 2004 that he should not have to tell a grand jury about that conversation, because it would harm Russert’s relationship with other sources.
Forget about what he knew. Forget about his refusing to testify or resisting testifying. What pisses me off is that he conducted dozens of shows and who knows how many interviews while pretending to know nothing about what was going on.
Someone convene a panel on blogger ethics. Tom Maguire is going to be an interesting read today.
Ozymandius
Damn bloggers. You can’t trust them to avoid the truth at any cost. What kind of journalistic standards do they have anyways?
ppGaz
Good catch. And then you have the even more amazing behavior of Bob Woodward. These rich “reporter” dudes act like Abramoffites, taking pains to get their luxury lunches and showing up at the stadium boxes of the Bigs for Redskin games and being the toast of all the best parties around town.
Gee, given the way the “press” rolled over and presented its crotch to the government in the runup to the Iraq war, and during the 2004 campaign, do we suppose that the entire town … politicians and press … are just one big corrupt bunch and ought to be thrown out?
Nah. The fact that an evil snake slithering through the sewers of our time like Robert Novak can still get a high paying job sitting in front of cameras and microphones and speaking his bullshit …. doesn’t mean anything. That’s just an anomaly …… Look, a jackalope!
Paddy O'Shea
Make Tim Cry
“Reliable sources have confirmed MWO that Jack Welch and Tim Russert attended last autumn’s Al Smith Dinner in New York together – and that Russert, on the back of his lapel, was cleverly wearing a Bush for President button.”
Seems pretty obvious to me. Russert was doing what he thought was best for the Bush administration. Which I suppose any rightwing hack would do in that situation. But as a journalist Russert is a complete phony.
http://rogerailes.blogspot.com/2004_05_23_rogerailes_archive.html
Mr Furious
Relationship with Sources vs. Credibility with Viewers
You’re either a TV personality who carries water for people or a journalist, Tim. Fucking decide which, and act appropriately. This is bulllshit.
Jill
This is not a surprise. Many on the left have been screaming about Russert’s (and most of his SCLM colleagues)lack of tough questioning for years. But go ahead and keep believing in a liberal media.
Jill
And, Russert knows Bush’s rules well enough to be afraid of losing access. What a fearless press we have!
Doug
Tim already made his decision. He’s a TV personality carrying water for people. It’s the act appropriately part he’s having trouble with.
danelectro
oh, *that* liberal media.
KCinDC
No surprise from Russert. It’s much the same as his trumpeting Cheney’s cheap shot about not having met Edwards in the vice-presidential debate when Russert knew at the time that it was a lie.
Geek, Esq.
Access journalism, an oxymoron.
Mr Furious
KC, that Howler link is infuriating.
ppGaz
Spring 2004, Meet the Press:
Bush: Well, I flew fighter jets in Alabama, and I enjoyed it.
Russert:
Nothing more need be said about Russerts fealty to power than pointing to the transcript of that mind-boggling interview. George Bush flipped a bird to every person in the country who had a legitimate concern about his military service, and Tim Russert looked at the floor.
Pooh
WTF is a “near non-story”?
RonB
Is there a third possibility that suggests that he may have to do one in order to do the other? In other words, in order to get access, do journalists pick their battles and propagandize/roll over when necessary while waiting for The Big Story?
Nikki
Let’s assume that the answer is yes. Then the question becomes: when and where does the rolling over stop?
The Other Steve
Interesting, but not unexpected.
The media is controlled by Republican stooges.
scs
Maybe Russert and Woodward didn’t testify because they knew the water cooler talk around town about Plame. Maybe they were afraid that they told Libby as much as Libby told them and didn’t want to get any entanglements for that. Did you all ever think about that?
Jorge
I think the real scandal here is this Judge Thomas who released these papers. This is just another classic example of an activist judge putting politics before the law. How about a little more discretion from the judiciary?
Paul Wartenberg
The growing evidence of a lack of ethics in journalism should be troubling. Didn’t any of these reporters and editors go to college? Didn’t any of them take ethics classes for their degrees? Probably not. Look at me: I went to journalism school and got a bachelors degree. I got an A in Journalism Ethics. Probably explains why I ended up as a librarian.
Nikki
Yeah, but the difference is that when one begins to believe one’s own hype, one imagines one’s self as a mover and shaker, a member of the elite, and begins to believe that one knows what’s best for the little people…
ppGaz
Did you ever consider making an effort to get the facts of an issue straight, and understanding the various aspects of it, before making your nonsensical little-girl posts?
scs
ppGaz, if only I could be as wise and level-headed as you. I love how your replies always stick to the facts and you make such well-reasoned arguments and don’t delve into personal attacks. I really respect you for that. Well, I can dream can’t I?
ppGaz
You’re a liar, and an idiot. I didn’t suggest wisdom to you, I suggested that you acquaint yourself with the facts before making nonsensical statements.
And your retort is off target. My strong language is not an assault on facts, it’s a style. You need to learn to tell style from content, they are not the same thing.
Your style is nauseating and girlish, but your content is the real problem. You just don’t know what you are talking about. Again.
ppGaz
You might as well get used to it, because every time you make a post like the one you made today I am going to call you on it, and I’m not going to go away because you do your little girl whiney thing instead of addressing the real problem … that you don’t know what the hell you are talking about.
You might think that wide-eyed oh-gee stupid routine is cute or endearing, but I don’t.
ppGaz
Well, you are taking a lot of time, so I assume that you are finding an adult to tell you what to say next ….
The Heretik
A near non story is like a near miss, neither near nor miss. Or in the case of the Mister (not the Miss) Maguire, the near non story is anon that we have heard the story before. Or suspected it. And now it is not real news. Because we already knew. Or something.
But if recent history teaches us anything, what we suspect and what turns out to be true are not always the same. Oh, happy day, the truth is now here.
So what? So this non near story is now non on the non and more near the truth. Ipso Retro Mofo and other latinisms may apply. More on Russert here which actually is someplace else technically from “here” where you are now.
scs
Feel free ppGaz. If that is what you enjoy to do, instead of engaging in a real debate, go ahead. Sometimes I might respond if I’m bored, other times I’ll do the correct thing and ignore you.
W.B. Reeves
You’re a fine one to score others about avoiding debate since this post amounts to nothing but a dodge. If you really had a point worth making you’d explain exactly how your imagined motives relieved Woodward and Russert from their professional and ethical obligation of full disclosure. Moreover, since when does not wanting to get involved constitute a legitimate reason for refusing to testify in a Grand Jury investigation? Refusing to testify as a matter of personal or professional convenience sounds like an invitation for an indictment on charges of obstruction.
I won’t hold my breath waiting for your response.
Krista
Exactly.
waddayaknow
whaddayaknow…
Paul L.
scs, you have experienced the joy of arguing with ppGaz.
Personal attacks and name-calling are SOP for ppGaz.
ppGaz
a “real debate” about your post?
Okay, let’s debate this: Why does anyone testify, or not testify, in an investigation like this?
And how do you reconcile that with your idiot post, upstream? Specifically, this asinine comment:
Was that a lame attempt at humor (lame, even for you), or do you once again have no frigging clue what is going on here?
ppGaz
So you state, each and every time I fire a torpedo at you. And yet you never actually do it.
What’s up with that?
ppGaz
Still pissed because I said your blog was shit, eh?
Your traffic counter today:
VISITS
Total 231
Average Per Day 3
Average Visit Length 0:56
Last Hour 0
Today 1
This Week 24
People should be aware that your crummy blog attempts to link Al Qaeda and John Murtha.
You couldn’t wipe the shoes of John Murtha, asshole. Not even with both hands.
Anderson
You found a blog at his link? All I found was lists of links. Possibly generated by some computer with (to judge by the rest of the site) an inadequately-programmed sense of style.
Paul L.
And ppGaz provides a excellent example proving my statement true.
You mean?
MURTHA AND AL QAEDA AGREE ON IRAQ WAR’S WINNER
To really raise your blood pressure, check out Murtha: Party over nation for more criticisms of Murtha by people with the military experience.
ppGaz
So, quoting your blog is what you call “personal attacks and name calling?”
Mister “Kingdom of Idiots?”
ppGaz
My bad, I should call it his “site”. It’s not a blog.
I’m just so used to failed righty bloggers hanging around here that I lumped him in.
Pooh
Just out of curiosity, how does one “fail” at blogging?
ppGaz
TallDave, I believe this is for you …..
Paul L.
No, I call this a personal attack and name calling.
ppGaz
But, you are an asshole. I’d be lying if I said otherwise.
ppGaz
This is the man Paul L tries to tie to Al Qaeda with the shameful link on his crummy, traitorous website
Calling you an asshole is a privilege, an honor. A matter of duty.
You should take down your asshole website and apologize to every Vietnam veteran and every reader of this blog.
Asshole.
moflicky
wow, don’t dare interupt the self congratulatory echo chamber here. someone might call you a big stinky poopy.
Considering Andrea Mitchell let it slip that pretty much the whole Washington press corp knew Plame worked at Langley, scs’s question isn’t even close to being out of the realm of possibilities.
I just wonder though, when it’s James Risen’s turn to testify about the NSA leaks, if the same standards of journalistic ethics will be supported by you guys.
oh yeah, silly me. Woodward and Russert had a chance to testify to HURT the president, Risen’s testimony on his leaks would HELP the president. Those same ethics just don’t apply, do they?
Pat.R
I don’t understand why some of you folks try to engage ppGaz in any sort of meaningful discussion. It is quite apparent from his posts that he most likely is a paranoid schizophrenic with a very small penis.
moflicky
I just enjoy his (and paddy’s) explosions. They’re so entertaining. They’re more fun than Oprah, The Biggest Loser and Maurie Povich all rolled into one.
gotta go, maybe I can catch a rerun of the surreal life.
ppGaz
Yeah, that’s the kind of retort we’d expect from a crowd that rallies around a guy who tries to hook up John Murtha, a decorated veteran with 35+ years of public service, to Al Qaeda .. and then calls ME somebody who resorts to personal attacks.
In a word, fuck you. Seriously. Fuck you and the horse you rode in on.
You guys want to keep diggin yourselves into this hole filled with traitorous bullshit? Because I am not giving in to you.
ppGaz
Her question is not close to being on point wrt this thread, you mean. Which was:
What does her silly-assed post have to do with that topic, or the facts of this case?
ppGaz
But perhaps more to the point, if her silly-assed post actually has merit, why didn’t she make that argument? Why does she need a lawyer to argue it for her?
Is this blog only for little girls, and guys who try to smear decorated Marines with Al Qaeda references?
moflicky
well I believe it goes directly to it. it would explain why they played dumb about it.
btw, since when did any single thread on any blog you’ve ever posted to EVER stay on message, and since when was straying off topic the tiny little bit that scs’s comment did, warrant the unhinged rage of your reply?
ppGaz
Right, of course.
Fuck you. There was nothing unhinged or raging about my reply, which was, in its entirety:
Whether you agree with my interpretation of the facts or not, your assertion is a lie.
Pat.R
As a follow up to my earlier brief comments on ppGaz…
The British Journal of Urology recently reported on the surprising results of a study in which a statistically strong correlation was found between “temperament” and “penis size.” In short, if you will pardon the expression, the study found that the smaller the length of a penis, whether flacid or erect, the greater the tendency for irritability to manifest itself in the subject. The posts of ppGaz demonstrably indicate the existence of an individual with a very, very small penis, or a very butch lesbian. More data would be required to confirm which hypothesis is correct.
ppGaz
So, your approach here is to talk about my penis?
That’s your strategy?
ppGaz
So, getting back to my penis, Pat. How do you think it tastes? More like mild Italian sausage, or a Kielbasa?
ppGaz
You know Pat, maybe the problem isn’t my small penis, maybe it’s just that you have a really big mouth?
Pat.R
It is manifestly clear that YOU are incapable of discussing anything of serious moment, and therefore YOU should perhaps consider discussing your “penis problem” with a psychiatrist for your own mental health. If you wish, I could post the contact information for a number of reputable ones.
moflicky
well, ok. first of all, since you can’t rebut the actual substance of what I first posted, i’ll drop down to the mud and talk about why you’re such a jerk.
scs threw out a supposition for discussion, which is what I thought was the whole purpose of blogs – discussion. The comment was certainly not off topic, nor, as I demonstrated, out of the question.
Yet it was immediately hit with your “little-girl” nonsense – thus, my echo-chamber comment – don’t want any dissenting voices or food for thought – that would be dangerous.
scs then defended himself using a bit of well deserved sarcasm, and you immediately came back with this completely undeserved rant.
sounds pretty unhinged to me. you weren’t going off on him about being off topic, you were going off because he disagreed with you. that wasn’t a rebuttal, you shouted him down.
there are a lot of folks here who throw the ‘LIAR’ epithet around a lot too, anyone who has a differing opinion is either a liar or a fool. civility is dead.
so, i’ll just join into the heart and spirit of the comments here, amply demonstrated by your sage post.
fuck you too. and have a nice day.
ppGaz
Nope. She has a history here, and my opinion of it is well established. She trades on a little-girl style, but I stopped buying it a long time ago. But that’s between her, and me. It’s none of your business … unless you are her dad, come to defend her?
scs is either a girl, or has been represented as one. The exchange is nothing new, I’ve been giving her hell for about a month now for reasons already stated and which I have no obligation to defend to you.
I have no opinion on civility being dead, or alive. I am not here to help you with that issue. It’s a political blog, and it’s hardball. If the uncivility of it bothers you, then I suggest you lead by example and demonstrate civility and see what you can do. My prediction is that you’ll fail, but give it your best shot.
Fuck you back, and have a shitty day. And .. how come you didn’t defend mister “John Murtha is Al Qaeda” and mister “I tasted ppG’s penis?” Aren’t they your friends? Wasn’t it their fight you were piling onto?
juan gewanfri
Actually I think that comment was addressed to me. Just to lazy to post the year I guess.
ppGaz
Okay, are we done here, or do I have to continue taking your four losers to school?
a) scs, the little girl who gets mad when an adult yells at her
b) Paul L, who calls a decorated Marine “like Al Qaeda”
c) Pat, who wants to write about the taste of my penis, for reasons as yet unexplained, although I am certainly appreciative, and …
d) moflicky, who jumps into someone else’s fight and is still trying to figure out who said what to whom
Whose turn is it?
moflicky
He seems to be doing fine on his own. no, we’ve never met, and no, I was making my own point, which you conventiently dodged, so I’ll repost it in case you want to actually comment on the substance rather than just piddle around in your inimitable ‘style’.
have at it bucky.
moflicky
there’s a difference between playing hardball and shouting down a differing opinion by rolling your shit into little balls and throwing it through the cage.
now we’re done for the night, i’m going to bed.
i’ll read your pussy farts in the morning.
how’s that? am I learning how to make a point around here?
Pat.R
Poor little ppGaz….left alone with nothing of consequence to amuse himself….tries to provoke a silly tiff over the slights he perceives others have visited on him….many of the classical signs of paranoid schizophrenia. And perhaps worst of all for poor little ppGaz, a self recognition that he is universally acknowledged to be a really world class dumb shit.
ppGaz
I’m sorry, were you going to post substance?
All I saw was rightyblog talk points.
NSA “leaks?” Whoever leaked the story deserves the Medal of Freedom. Whoever decided they could trade my civil liberties for the small possibility of some raghead terror smack talk should get his fingernails pulled out with pliers and get strung up by his tiny gonads. Real Americans don’t throw away their freedom for a little security, and they sure as hell wouldn’t consider doing it on the advice of somebody like you.
ppGaz
Hey, who told you to take your mouth of my penis?
ppGaz
Loser.
ppGaz
Almost an hour since you mentioned my penis, Pat.
When will I see you again?
L. K. Dao
Pat.R, don’t you know that quoting stories about the perverted sexual fantasies of homosexual lifestyle-choosers only reinforces their campaign for “equal rights”? Their working with the anti-God “scientists” to paint themselves as just more “normal deviation” (as if any deviant could ever be normal).
Don’t reinforce them by quoting the “facts” that people measure. Stick to the real Truth that God gave us.
Pooh
Best. Post. Ever.
ppGaz
What’s your problem?
demimondian
You know, Pooh, I think ppG is striving for an award from your blog…
ppGaz
?
demimondian
Seth offers an award to the Asshole of the Week. This week’s nominees for the “honor” include Fred Phelps. (Although, frankly, Phelps is beyond being an asshole. “Hemorrhoid of the week” is more accurate, in my opinion.)
ppGaz
Yes, I’m aware of that. Exactly what transgression would you estimate qualifies me for that award?
demimondian
Did I say it was a transgression, ppG? If it is, please don’t fix it — you’re a perfectly charming curmudgeon as it is, and an addition to the blog.
But you’re an asshole, too.
ppGaz
.
Heh. Well, you would have to know me to make that judgment, and you don’t.
But in this thread, all I’ve done is defend myself against four reprobates who tried to gang up on me this afternoon.
scs, the resident little-girl poster, who never gets anything quite right but reserves the right to use the Stormy Defense if challenged: Aw shucks, it’s just little ole me!
Paul L, a guy who wants to pimp the idea that John Murtha is like Al Qaeda.
moflicky, who is a righty asshat of the highest order.
And PatR, who for some reason wants to talk about my penis.
So I hold off these embarassments to electronic communication, and the only award I can get is Asshole of the Week?
From Pooh, a guy who thinks that the war in Iraq is basically okay because, while we were wrong about WMDs, everybody else was too. Possibly the most intellectually bankrupt position on the war I’ve seen yet. It’s one thing to pimp that view as a righty defender when you got nothing else, but to represent it as a valid defense just because …. you actually believe it? Jesus.
Really, we need to upgrade this neighborhood, it’s gone to the dogs.
scs
Honestly, ppGaz, I am starting to get worried about you. You think you have the right to abuse me because you think I have a “little girl style”, whatever that is? We are in BTK territory here. This raging obsession to punish what you term a ‘little girl style’ shows some sort of sexual fantasy connection here, almost like an obsession to control women’s minds. That love of abusive control of women is a common element in the violent fantasies of serial killers. I’m not implying that you are a serial killer in real life, only that you may have some common psychological elements of one. And for that irrational abusive behavior, I really think John should seriously consider having you banned from here.
And thanks to the others who spoke up for me and understood what I was trying to say in the casual comment I threw out there.
moflicky
so, there we have it.
breaking the law (yes, several serious laws were broken) is just dandy in ppJiz’s eyes, as long as it’s in the name of some lefty paranoid fantasy.
Never mind that secrecy laws have absolutely zero exceptions for whistleblowers. zero. even though there IS a whistleblower statute that provides for this sort of thing, and it appears those provisions weren’t even attempted by the leaker.
so, his obvious answer to my question is no. pp will not have the same sort of journalistic ethics or respect for the law when it comes to the NSA leaks. Because first and formost, he’s a bush hater and that trumps any law.
I’m certain pp also fancys himself as a liberal, which makes all the more puzzling his propensity to bitchslap scs simply because she has the audacity to have an opinion which she voices in some vague, percieved ‘little-girl style’. I thought liberals were all about empowering women to be who they are and to be able to participate in the marketplace of ideas.
this tells me all I need to know about you pp.
buh-bye.
Paul L.
ppGaz a guy lacking in the ability to read and distinguishing that Ayman Zawahiri has adopted John Murtha/the democrats talking points not that John Murtha is like Al Qaeda.
John Murtha’s service does not give him a pass on what he said. “I worry about a slow withdrawal which makes it look like there’s a victory when I think it should be a redeployment as quickly as possible and let the Iraqis handle the whole thing.”
BTW, Ollie North/Duke Cunningham have a similar records. I guess by your logic anyone who criticizes them is a asshole.
Paddy O'Shea
Regarding Paul L and Mo “Pinocchio Mo” Flicky: I think it is time that we called these rabid and servile supporters of the pro-Iranian Islamist govt in Baghdad what they really are –
Traitors.
moflicky
I thought I heard an echo. Did anyone else hear an echo?
moflicky
sort of sounded like this…
Paddy’s an idiot……
Paddy’s an idiot……
Paddy’s an idiot……
Paddy’s an idiot……
Paddy’s an idiot……
Paddy’s an idiot……
anyone else hear that?
Paddy O'Shea
Poor Pinocchio Mo. Hearing those voices again.
Pinocchio’s love for Islamist fundamentalism is apparently so strong that he has even taken to wearing the garb of the Iranian Grand Ayatollahs whose interests he works so tirelessly to support.
If you don’t believe me, stop by his house. 2 foot spunk colored beard, white (sort of) bedsheet, and a big old cat box on his head.
Of course, he doesn’t get out of the house much. Every time he tries the neighborhood kids throw rocks at him.
Barry
John: “Someone convene a panel on blogger ethics. Tom Maguire is going to be an interesting read today.”
John, why do you mention Tom? I went over to his site, just in case he’d changed, and it was the same old ‘nothing to see, move along’ BS that he’s been putting out through this entire affair. His credibility with me had disappeared many months ago.
moflicky
Paddy,
you sound like you’ve got a problem with arabs or muslims. almost sounds racist to me.
nah, couldn’t be. you’re liberal. you’re all about diversity, like all liberals, aren’t you?
as long as it’s not diversity of thought.
ppGaz
ppGaz a guy lacking in the ability to read and distinguishing that Ayman Zawahiri has adopted John
It’s a policy difference. Trying to smear the man for having a policy difference is not defensible, and you are a shithead for trying to do so.
But more importantly …. can we please get back to discussing my penis? Where’s Pat?
Paddy O'Shea
Poor Pinocchio Mo, thrashing around like a skunk that just had its back snapped by a speeding semi.
Smells pretty bad, though.
Paul L.
ppGaz, Can I judge Muthra by the company he keeps?
Murtha Gets Pink Badge Of Courage