| July 8, 2005 Editor’s Desk by Aaron Selbig It’s been a defiant week here at Insurgent Headquarters. Well, well, well ... they sent Judith Miller to jail on Wednesday. I must say I’m a bit surprised. Here in the I-49 boardroom, the general consensus seemed to be that the country had developed a case of ‘Deep Throat’ Fever (the Watergate whistleblower, not the popular 1970s adult film), and we’d hoped, for Judith Miller’s sake, the grand jury would let her go. Not so. For those of you who’ve been cooped up in an underground bunker for the last several months, diligently re-stocking your supply of duct tape and MREs in preparation for Armageddon, Judith Miller is the New York Times reporter who, along with colleague Matthew Cooper of Time Magazine, has been found in contempt of court for refusing to divulge sources of information to a federal grand jury. Cooper cracked a few days ago and claimed that Karl Rove (oops! did I say that out loud?), err ... his source gave him the go-ahead to divulge his name to the grand jury. Miller, on the other hand, has been steadfast all the while, maintaining that the First Amendment should protect her from having to serve time over a newspaper story. A story, by the way, which she never even wrote. Again, in case you missed all of this due to the ‘Family Ties’ marathon on Nick At Nite, a little background: The grand jury in question is investigating the Bush Administration for allegedly leaking the name of an undercover CIA operative, Valerie Plame, to the press in retaliation for an op/ed written by her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, which dared to question aspects of the invasion of Iraq. Follow? At any rate, Karl Rove (damn! why do I keep doing that?), I mean ... uh ... an anonymous source leaked Plame’s identity to columnist Robert Novak, who immediately wrote it up in a column and somehow got away scot free, leaving Cooper and Miller to face the firing squad. I know ... it’s confusing ... kind of like a cross between Beverly Hills 90210 and the Spanish Inquisition. Admittedly, it’s been difficult not to get excited about a federal grand jury taking the time to investigate the Bush Administration for something. We desperately want to root for them and hold on to the slimmest of hopes that perhaps, even without Judith Miller’s testimony, they will come up with some damning evidence (and maybe even a handful of indictments) that the Bushies did indeed put Valerie Plame’s life on the line to exact their juvenile vendetta. However, this case is bigger than Bush’s crimes; it’s about freedom of the press. Is it merely coincidental that, in the middle of this nasty standoff, the most speculated-upon secret source in all of journalism has finally been revealed? After more than thirty years of fierce denials (including once under oath in open court) former #2 man at the FBI and J. Edgar Hoover protégé Mark Felt has finally come forward to claim the honor of being the most famous person ever named after a porno movie. Which begs the question: What if Woodward and Bernstein, like Judith Miller, were imprisoned by Nixon’s government for refusing to reveal the identity of Deep Throat? Spooky. Hang in there, Judith, we here at insurgent49 are behind you all the way (I’m sure she’ll find that comforting). And hey, Karl Rove! You’re no Deep Throat. Regards, Aaron Selbig Editor, Insurgent Media AK |
-
Columnists -
- column archive -
July 1, 2005 June 24, 2005 June 17, 2005 June 10, 2005 June 3, 2005 May 27, 2005 May 20, 2005 May 13, 2005 May 6, 2005 April 28, 2005 April 21, 2005 April 14, 2005 April 7, 2005 April 1, 2005 |
||||||
| Copyright 2005
Insurgent Media.
All rights reserved. in-sur-gent (in sur'jent), n. 1. a member of a group which revolts against the policies of its leadership. |
|||||||
