Will I Ever Learn?

I just got done watching Hardball (I know, I’m going to stop) and Chris Matthews allowed Deborah Orin to lie, lie, lie without even pretending to call her out. I haven’t screamed so loud at my television since last Sunday when I watched Meet The Press. I know what you’re thinking, what did I expect from the Washington Bureau Chief for the New York Post. The best description of the Post I ever heard was from the comedian Elayne Boosler who confessed she did buy Hustler magazine, but only because she needed something to hide the New York Post in so no one would see her with it. I’d turn to Larry Flint over Deborah Orin for real reporting any day of the week.

Orin’s position tonight was that Scooter Libby was not indicted for outing a covert agent, therefore Valerie Plame wasn’t a covert agent. It seems that Miss Deborah has picked up the baton from “Miss Run Amock” Judy Miller and is running full steam ahead. I thought when Judy was let go from the Times, we would be finished with this circular logic that makes no sense to anyone other that the one spinning it out. She had to work hard to take Patrick Fitzgerald's clear and concise language in the indictment and in his press conference and twist them into a murky and muddy mess yet somehow manage to come out with a declarative statement that the indictment proves Plame wasn’t a covert agent. I guess the idea is to make it so complicated that no one can figure it out, which apparently works on the likes of Chris Matthews, but it won’t work on the rest of us thinking people.

What Fitzgerald said was that Valerie Plame’s identity was classified. He also said that he charged Libby with obstruction of justice because by “throwing sand in the eyes” of those charged with investigating the crime and ferreting out the truth, there was no way to fully determine the facts of the case. Therefore he was charging Libby with what he considered to be an equally serious charge in lieu of charging him for the underlying crime. That is a far cry from absolving Libby of guilt. I would argue that it proves malice on his part in covering it up and implies that he’s guilty of something else worth hiding.

What I don’t understand is, what do “reporters” like Deborah Orin have to gain from continuing to peddle these lies? Is she in so deep that she can’t get out or is it simply a bad habit that still feels good? I can certainly relate to that, but I would like to think I would be able to see the writing on the wall. It’s time to cut your losses and hold on to your job if you can. Just ask Judy, but at least she has a book deal to fall back on, Ms. Orin I’m afraid will have no such luck. There is a difference between being in the middle of things and pretending that you could be if you just keep plugging away. Maybe they’ll all get lucky and a new network will be born to house all of the shills who suddenly find themselves without a job. UNN, the Used to be in News Network, we report whatever we want to, you decide who’s the bigger liar. Then Chris Matthews will finally get the Washington Bureau Chief position on a network worthy of his journalistic standards.