MONDAY'S LETTERS: Thoughts on Plamegate, Rathergate and Michael Getler's Farewell Column

By: E&P Staff Today's letters look at the ongoing Plame investigation, which has heated up once again, and the upcoming Mary Mapes book, which opens old wounds from CBS' Rathergate fiasco. Plus, one alert reader calls attention to the farewell column by Michael Getler, Washington Post's outgoing ombudsman, who takes a (perhaps) final look at the paper's reporting on the run up to the Iraq war.

Thanks for the Plame Reporting

I've read everything I can on the Plame case for over a year now, and just wanted to say I thought Greg Mitchell's article Sunday on Miller's notes was very insightful. Thank you for the great reporting.

Chris Bond

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Once Again the Bush Double Standard

The White House and the Religious Right have been claiming for six years that Bush is God's anointed President.

A report comes along that Bush was inspired by God to attack the enemies of America in Iraq and Afghanistan and bring justice to the evildoers, and now they want to deny God's guidance.

Boy, I wish my conscience were as elastic and convenient as theirs.

Robert Chapman
Lansing, N.Y.

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Re: Greg Mitchell's "Aspens Turning" column:

I think it's quite the parlor game deciphering the Libby letter. If I received a letter like that I'd interpret it to mean that the people involved all had gotten their stories straight.

R. Osamond

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Re: Libby and Fitzgerald

In his letter that you quote, Fitzgerald says that unless I. "Scooter" Libby reaffirms his waiver, Judith Miller will remain in jail. It's Judith Miller who's the driving force: all that Fitzgerald is doing is telling Libby, officially and in writing, that he, Libby, is responsible for Judith Miller's being in jail in the first place. Till Fitzgerald sent him that letter, Libby was letting everybody think he'd given Judith Miller and everybody else an adequate blanket waiver, while Judith Miller was letting everybody think she was remaining in jail in order to protect freedom of the press because she thought Libby's blanket waiver had been coerced -- two postures that let both Libby and Miller seem to be victims of coercion and thus fit to be hero and heroine.

Fitzgerald called Miller's bluff by saying she was going to remain in jail and he called Libby's bluff by saying that he, Libby, was responsible for her remaining in jail. Coercion doesn't come into play. Libby doesn't want anybody, whether Fitzgerald or the American public, to know that his own lack of sincerity, and not Fitzgerald's allegedly having coerced him to give his blanket waiver, was the sole reason for Miller's remaining in jail. Judith Miller at last wanted to get out of jail. It was Miller who chickened out and thus brought Libby's reign of cuteness to an end. The culture of victimhood has its limits.

John Cole

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Re: Judy Miller's missing notebook:

How interesting, as Fu Manchu used to say in his movies. But, the prime question is: Can anyone really trust any reporter at The New York Times?

Second question: Did she go to jail just to regain her position at the newspaper?

Third question: Where were these notes before and why were they discovered now?

Fourth question: Who cares?

I was an investigator of Fraud, Waste and Mismanagement for the Federal Government for 25 years. During that time any person with a reasonable sense of investigation would develop a "gut feeling," I called it a "creepy feeling" about a case of fraud. Somehow I get that feeling with this case. I wonder if it could be true that there is more behind the picture than in the picture?

Bob Cowger
Poteet, Texas

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Re: Mary Mapes Hits Bloggers and MSM in Upcoming Book

Sounds like Ms. Mapes is still waiting for a magical '70s typewriter to appear into which a blank piece of paper can be inserted and a proportionately spaced Microsoft Word-style document emerge.

Her past work is now suspect given her amazing inability to accept the obvious.

Bob Hora

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Your "Mary Mapes Hits Bloggers" neglected the most hilarious excerpt from Mary Mapes' upcoming book. Mapes is under the impression that, "All these Web sites had extensive write-ups on the documents: on typeface, font style, and peripheral spacing..."

"Peripheral spacing?" What on earth is that? The term makes no sense. The bloggers that are the targets of her rant were referring to "proportional spacing."

Maybe CBS and "60 Minutes" don't really tilt left. Maybe they're simply so stupid they can't help blundering.

Mike Perry
Editor, Inkling Books
Seattle, Wash.
Author: Untangling Tolkien

P.S. For the peripheral spacing quote see:

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=17682&only

http://newsbusters.org/node/1468

http://www.transterrestrial.com/archives/005786.html#005786


The first was one of the Web sites that blew Rathergate open.

Ed's Note: For a rebuttal to this letter, see the Oct. 11 letter from Kate Hall.

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More Praise for Plamegate Coverage

It's nice to see someone digging further into this than the people you see on the "news" channels on TV.

Keep up the great work!

Sheri Sanders
Chelsea, Mich.

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Washington Post -- Closest to Mea Culpa We're Likely to Get

Monday's column ("A Parting Thought on Iraq, Again") by the Washington Post's ombudsman (who's leaving) is quite interesting. It basically says that the reporters were writing, but editor Len Downey et al., buried the stuff in the back pages, if they allowed items to run at all.

Donna Middlehurst
Chevy Chase, Md.