Captain Ed directs my attention to something Howard Kurtz wrote in the Washington Post last summer about how Big Media lost interest in discussing Joe Wilson when it turned out he was a liar (emphases mine):
Former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV's allegations that President Bush misled the country about Saddam Hussein seeking uranium from Africa was a huge media story, fueled by an investigation into who outed his CIA-operative wife. According to a database search, NBC carried 40 stories, CBS 30 stories, ABC 18, The Washington Post 96, the New York Times 70, the Los Angeles Times 48.If that isn't dereliction of journalistic duty, then what is? Actually, it's not so much dereliction as it is a deliberate blackout by Big Media intended to obscure their complicity in Wilson's lies.
But a Senate Intelligence Committee report that contradicts some of Wilson's account and supports Bush's State of the Union claim hasn't received nearly as much attention. "NBC Nightly News" and ABC's "World News Tonight" have each done a story. But CBS hasn't reported it -- despite a challenge by Republican Chairman Ed Gillespie on CBS's "Face the Nation," noting that the network featured Wilson on camera 15 times. A spokeswoman says CBS is looking into the matter.
Newspapers have done slightly better. The Post, which was the first to report the findings July 10, has run two stories, an editorial and an ombudsman's column; the New York Times two stories and an op-ed column; and the Los Angeles Times two stories. Wilson, meanwhile, has defended himself from what he calls "a Republican smear campaign" in op-ed pieces in The Post and Los Angeles Times.
I have no idea what Patrick Fitzgerald is about to hand down, but the story of this whole Plame business will not be complete without a full understanding of what a lying tool Joe Wilson is. Think that's an argument for mitigation? You're damned right it is.