The Plame game -- Just the facts, ma'am

I don't know if working on a newspaper like the Daily Mail for three years qualifies me as a journalist or if I'm just a hack reporter but considering what mainstream national journalists are up to I'm not sure I want the hoity-toity title.

It's bad enough when national politicians get down in the muck and throw mudballs at each other while screaming "Did not! -- Did too!" at one another, but when media members join in while claiming to be impartial observers any credibility they claim for themselves evaporates like a drop of water in desert sands.

The Valerie Plame affair is a case in point.

Many of the mainstream media elite are screaming that Karl Rove should be immediately dismissed, his security clearance pulled and have other, less well-defined punishments, inflicted. What they aren't saying is that they are defending Matthew Cooper and Judith Miller by using the same arguments as Rove's defenders -- while at the same time saying those arguments don't apply to Rove.

Many media companies banded together to file an amicus brief in the Cooper and Miller case arguing that since Plame's cover was blown long before their testimony was unneeded and therefore they shouldn't be punished.

If what they argue is true why is it that journalists from those same companies are saying that Rove should be punished?

Isn't he as guiltless as they?

None of the people calling for Rove's hair admit they could be deceiving the American public in such a manner but all it takes is a little looking and you find members of the mainstream media as capable of deception as the most fanatical political operative.

I have what many believe to be an antiquated view of the news, I believe that if something happens of interest to readers, it's news and should be covered. I don't think a reporter's feelings should sway a reporter unduly even if they can't be eliminated altogether, after all a reporter is still a human being with all of the faults and weakness we all have so some things will slip through.

Journalists, turned up noses and all, believe that the media are the fourth estate, an integral, though unofficial, part of government and should take an adversarial role with government officials -- especially if they are conservative.

Thus we have journalists speaking with forked tongues, arguing that Rove should be punished for things Cooper and Miller should be exonerated for.

So don't call me a journalist. I'm just a reporter who tries to give you the facts as they are, without any agenda of mine. . .

Unless of course it's on the opinion page, the one place I feel free to let down my hair (OK, there isn't enough of it to do that literally) and say what I think and express my feelings on things of passing interest.

For those of you who would like to see for yourselves what the amicus brief filed by the media companies say it can be viewed by going to: http://www.bakerlaw.com/files/tbl_s10New...

10159/Amici%20Brief%20032305%20(Final).PDF.

It's a handful to type in, but if you want to see first hand it's worth it.