By: E&P Staff In its first major look at Robert Novak and his role in the Valerie Plame/CIA probe, The New York Times today reports that a growing number of media ethics specialists, lawyers and journalists are criticizing the columnist ?as failing as a journalist? by not outlining for the public his dealings with the investigation.
"He has become part of the story," Lucy Dalglish, the executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, told the Times. "He should disclose what's going on. Everyone else has."
Geneva Overholser, a professor at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, added: "He's a journalist. If he believes in reporting and truth-telling, it's time he did some of that."
Times reporters Lorne Manly and Adam Liptak called it ?perhaps the gravest confrontation between the government and the press in a generation.?
They reveal that on C-Span last month, queried by Brian Lamb, Novak referred dismissively to two reporters, Judith Miller of The New York Times and Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, who face possible jail time for refusing to reveal sources.
"I don't know why they're upset with me," Novak said. "They ought to worry about themselves. I worry about myself."
Manly and Liptak observe: ?Lawyers for other reporters in the investigation say Novak's role is a mystery. It is inconceivable, they say, that he has not received a subpoena from the independent prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald.
?But they add that none of his possible responses - naming his sources, objecting on First Amendment grounds or asserting his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination - seem to fit any plausible scenario in this case, given Novak's few cryptic statements. A spokeswoman for Fitzgerald declined to comment.?
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