Novak starts to lose the support of his colleagues

August 12, 2005

Ultimately, journalists will usually defend other journalists, even if it’s little more than out of professional courtesy. Bob Novak’s colleagues, however, seem to have had just about enough of the guy.

The Denver Post got the ball rolling this week with an editorial insisting that it’s time for Novak to come clean.

It’s time for Robert Novak to give a public accounting of what led up to his 2003 newspaper column in which he revealed the identity of a heretofore clandestine CIA operative, Valerie Plame. […]

Novak finally broke his silence last week, defending his work after a CIA official suggested that Novak had acted improperly…. But it’s not reasonable for the columnist to discuss the Plame matter when it suits him but continue his silence when it doesn’t. […]

Novak put his toe in the water Aug. 1 and should complete his public explanation now.

The Denver paper isn’t the only outlet insisting that Novak offer a “public accounting.” Editor & Publisher, a media trade publication, asked a series of columnists and editors who run Novak’s column if they agreed with the Post’s suggestion. Several major players, including Richard Reeves and Cal Thomas, said Novak should discuss his role in the scandal, especially after broaching the subject in his column last week.

But I was particularly fond Creators columnist Norman Solomon’s perspective.

“Novak should give a ‘public accounting,’ but not to reveal confidential sources and not in response to legal duress,” he told E&P Online. “The problem with Novak the columnist is not that he revealed the name of a CIA agent but that he has long served as a de facto operative for the Republican Party’s spin machine. … This is far from the first time he has worked hand-in-glove with the likes of Karl Rove. He’s a prime example of elite pundits who routinely appear on network TV and hundreds of Op-Ed pages while spinning to serve powerful partisan interests that hold sway in Washington.” […]

When asked whether Novak should lose subscribers, Solomon replied: “If I were an Op-Ed editor, I wouldn’t run Novak’s column — not because he’s conservative or because of the Plame incident, but because truth-in-packing would require a cumbersome notice to readers that the columnist’s work has been an integral part of the Republican Party’s media-spin apparatus.”

Time to enjoy retirement, Bob.

I don’t recall ever seeing anything by or about Norman Soloman, but he sure does have a knack for calling “a spade a spade.” Wow! More of that, please!

If as seems likely Novak falls, and he either isn’t or can’t be protected by Rove and the rest of BushCo, then Novak is vile and petty enough to take them down with him. Not because of a late realization of how he willingly let himself be used as a tool, and that now late in life he must make a “journalist’s death-bed, soul-saving confession.” No, Novak has no honor, no conscience, no integrity — all necessary prerequisites for the possibility of a true confession set in.

No, Novak will just go down in flames (think “CNN”), and take as many with him as he can. Because that’s what the Dark Side — the RightWingNoiseMachine — IS and what it DOES.

  • As Churchill observed, us liberals are the
    ones with hearts, but it’s almost impossible
    to feel sorry for Novak.

    By the way, how come Novak was suspended
    for an expletive, but Cheney didn’t even have
    to apologize for throwing the f-word at
    Pat Leahy during a Senate session?

  • The man has tossed his career for this, amazing.

    He’s caught up in so many lies that cursing and stalking off the set is really a better option than trying to slither out of the truth under legitimate questioning.

    To me, it’s so bizarre I can only get my mind around it by lampooning it.

    EWM – Eyewitness Muse has learned that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has settled on a groundbreaking strategy to bring justice to the primary culprits behind the leaking of a CIA operative’s identity. He will charge White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and syndicated columnist Robert Novak with incest.

    Our source, speaking on triple super secret, cross-my-heart and hope-to-die background, told EWM that Fitzgerald has concluded that the scandal is a by-product of the collusion of people that “ought not to have been in bed with one another.”

    Read More

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