A picture is indeed worth a thousand words, but for the political partisans responsible for the one below, it’s only about 16 historic ones.


The People for the American Way (PAW) want to host an evening for several champions of free speech. Per the PAW press release, “It should be a remarkable evening as these two defenders of the First Amendment sit down together.”

First thought. How exactly has Valerie Plame Wilson defended the First Amendment? Even if one includes by reference her husband, Joe Wilson, how has he championed free speech? Standing up for the right to lie, defame, and mischaracterize, all for personal or partisan gain and media attention? He’s shown a tendency to be “free” with his speech, but not in any way having anything to do with the First Amendment

Second thought. How has Olbermann defended free speech?! Other than that he speaks freely? So does Louis Farrakhan or comedian Michael Richards. Other than as an exercise on how a rabidly partisan, third rate cable commentator, can spout hate and hyperbolic excrement without editorial oversight, what courageous stands has Olbermann taken? The brave stand of achieving ever diminishing ratings?

Full disclosure: The folks who run the People for the American Way are an uber-Liberal, 100% Democrat affiliated, anti Bush Administration bunch, who organized solely for the purpose of promoting a Leftist political agenda via 527 organization political contribution loopholes. (Thanks, John McCain. Politics is so much less tainted by undue influence. I feel more empowered just thinking about partisans pretending to be non-profits.)

Now if Olbermann were really a champion of free speech, here’s a couple of questions he could ask the publicity-seeking, former non-covert intelligence analyst:

Ø Why did you push to have your husband, with no WMD or military experience or credentials, sent on a fact finding mission to Africa?

Ø Doesn’t the CIA have conflict of interest and ethics regulations or policies that preclude employees arranging contracts for spouses? Weren’t you in violation of these policies?

Ø Why did you husband publicly claim that he had found no evidence that Saddam Hussein sought uranium from Niger, when in fact he had uncovered evidence to the contrary? Why did he not prepare or submit an after action report of his trip?

Ø Weren’t you uncomfortable with your husband’s high visibility media appearances? Weren’t you concerned for your job or the sensitive nature of your work?

Ø You weren’t a covert agent when your husband visited Niger, were you?

Ø How much money have you and your husband made from your notoriety?

Ø Why did the US Senate conclude that your husband was lying?

Suffice it to say that Olbermann won’t ask questions like these. Not a chance:

Valerie Plame will make the first public appearance since the beginning of the Scooter Libby trial to discuss her life, her career, and the personal battle she and her husband, Ambassador Joseph Wilson are fighting against the most powerful officials in the nation. It is a battle they are waging largely alone, a battle the Congress of the United States would not join, a battle that the news media shied away from, a battle few have the courage to fight.

Clearly PAW has a sense of humor. What battle could these people be talking about, that Congress or the news media shy away from?

We are nearing the end of a malicious prosecution, not of leaking Mrs. Wilson’s identity – which I guess was no crime at all, seeing there are no prosecutions to that effect – merely for being mildly uncooperative with a over-reaching special prosecutor.

The media have spent the better part of three years shielding Wilson and Plame for their own misconduct, covering up and obscuring the facts of the whole affair, and manufacturing a phony libel against the President and Vice President. Misrepresenting what the President said in his 2003 State of the Union address, misreporting about the true facts about Saddam Hussein’s attempts to resuscitate his nuclear program, obscuring that we do in fact know who revealed Plame’s identify, that is was Richard Armitage, but he’s a Friend of the Media. No doubt because he was responsible for more anti-Bush Administration leaks than anyone in Washington. All above and beyond the fact that the whole Plame-CIA-Yellowcake-Uranium-Iraq mess was a covert bureaucratic battle between the Bush Administration, a near-treasonous CIA, and an openly disloyal State Department.

If the Media hasn’t been carrying water for the sensation-seeking Wilsons these past three years, what else would you call it?

(Via Byron York at The Corner.)

Labels: Iraq, media