Moving the goal posts

The Washington Post has an interesting article today on the ethics of revealing sources. In on part, it discusses one aspect of the Plame scandal - that reporters are now trying to determine if once the info about Plame was out there, were officials trying to get the story (of Plame's identity, not of the leak) noticed.

The murkiness of the subject emerged at a White House briefing last week. Reporters wanted to know whether administration officials had not only leaked the identity of Wilson's wife but also called attention to Novak's July 14 column in subsequent conversations with reporters. Press secretary Scott McClellan accused them of "moving the goal posts," saying: "The subject of this investigation is whether someone leaked classified information."

And he's right, in a sense. The current investigation really is about whether someone leaked classified information or not. (Perhaps he could also remind those in the administration who keep trying to turn this into a question of Joseph Wilson's character that the investigation is about who leaked, not who Wilson supported for president.) But the question of whether, once the information was out there, the administration tried to get the story spread further is also an important one, as it helps to show that there was certainly interest within the White House to make this information known.

As noted earlier, though, it looks like we have at least part of the answer to that question. According to Newsweek's Michael Isikoff, Karl Rove brought the suject up while talking to Chris Matthews and let it be known that it was "reasonable" to discuss "who sent Wilson to Niger" - implying that talking about Plame was ok because it could cast doubt on why Wilson was chosen, thus making his conclusions and his opinion more suspect - which was, apparently, the goal all along.

So, while McClellan is right in that the true story is who leaked the information, the reporters are also right to be "moving the goal posts" a bit - it looks like this story may require a bigger playing field before it's all over.

Posted by thorswitch at October 5, 2003 02:49 PM | TrackBack