Thursday, Nov 10 2005

I did not blog about the Grapevine yesterday, but developments this morning make it worthwhile. So let's take a look at Wednesday's Grapevine:

The Grapevine for Wednesday, November 9th, follows a recent trend for that segment in that once again it represents little more than a series of Whitehouse talking points. And in fact, much of the segment is almost indistinguishable from the "Grapevine" of November 7th. Hume again brings up the suspicious charges of general Paul Vallely, who claims that Joseph Wilson told him about his wife's employment while both were waiting to be interviewed for a Fox News segment. But today Brit Hume further notes that:

General Vallely, by the way, isn't the first to call Valerie Plame's job at the CIA an open secret. In 2003, NBC correspondent Andrea Mitchell said Plame's CIA job had been "widely known among those of us who cover the intelligence community."

Now, what's interesting is that this morning, on "Imus in the Morning," host Don Imus had Andrea Mitchell on his show and specifically questioned here about this topic. Mitchell's answer: she claims to have been taken out of context, or to have possibly misspoken in the context of a long interview that touched on many points. She noted that she did not know Valerie Wilson's occupation before Robert Novak published his piece, and she expressed frustration that this quote has been seized on by right-wing bloggers who, at the same time, ignore eveything else she has said about the Wilson case.

Will Brit Hume retract this claim on a future Grapevine? It will be interesting to see what he does, if anything. However, I want to make one further point about this incident: the fact that Andrea Mitchell did not (to my knowledge) disown this comment until this morning gives Brit Hume little journalistic cover. One wonders why, if Hume was going to quote Mitchell, either he or one of his staffers did not take the time to contact the NBC reporter to double check her account before airing the segment in question. This is basic journalistic practice. Apparently, however, it is not basic journalistic practice for Hume, whose "Grapevine" segment appears to be little more than an unresearched, unverified regurgitation of propagandistic claims posted on right-wing blogs and conservative "news" outlets such as WorldNetdaily.

Tuesday, Nov 8, 2005

Today's Grapevine is basically a series of Republican talking points. Not much worth commenting, really. Perhaps the most ridiculous item in them is that Brit Hume keeps beating the dead "Valerie Plame's employment was a subject of Washington dinner conversation" talking point. Today, Hume claims that he has irrefutable proof that Joseph Wilson revealed his wife's secret, Superhero identity long before Robert Novak ignored the CIAs pleas and published it in his column. And to whom, pray tell, did Wilson reveal his wife's dirty little secret? Wouldn't you know it would just happen to be a Fox News analyst on Rupert Murdoch's payroll?

Retired Army General and FOX News contributor Paul Vallely says he knew former ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife Valerie Plame was a CIA agent long before she was outed in a newspaper column in 2003 because Wilson told him so. Vallely says Wilson volunteered the information in at least three separate conversations while both men were waiting to appear on FOX News programs during the fall of 2002.

Yeah, it's a laughable story on the face of it.

That said, it's even easier to discount Vallely's claims once we track them down to their source: this article in the right-wing propaganda outlet Worldnet Daily.

Some choice quotations from the piece make it pretty clear just how "objective" and "detached" this guy really is:

Vallely told WND that, in his opinion, it became clear over the course of several conversations that Wilson had his own agenda, as the ambassador's analysis of the war and its surrounding politics strayed from reality.

"He was a total self promoter," Vallely said. "I don't know if it was out of insecurity, to make him feel important, but he's created so much turmoil, he needs to be investigated and put under oath."
...
Vallely said, citing CIA colleagues, that in addition to his conversations with Wilson, the ambassador was proud to introduce Plame at cocktail parties and other social events around Washington as his CIA wife.

Hi, I'm Joseph Wilson, and this is my CIA wife!

Ridiculous. It's embarrasing that conservatives actually buy this stuff.

Monday, Nov 11

Running two blogs while holding down a real job is a Herculean task, so this brit Hume blog will probably get updated only occasionally.

At any rate: Today's "Grapevine" is notable in that Brit Hume casts a sympathetic eye on Jimmy Carter, for a change. Why? Well, why else: in an upcoming C-Span interview, Carter --a born again Christian-- expresses criticism over the Democratic party's unyielding embrace of abortion rights, and worries that the party is not providing a welcoming enough home for "deeply religious people":

Former President Jimmy Carter (search) criticized his own party yesterday, saying Democrats spend way too much time debating the issue of abortion. Carter said he condemns all abortions, saying, "I've never been convinced... that Jesus Christ would approve of abortions." As for why Democrats lost the last election, Carter said that party leaders had failed to connect with "deeply religious people in this country."

Interestingly enough, Hume does not appear to have felt that the following statement of Carter's was also newsworthy: "The next successful candidate has got to have some means to say, OK, we believe and we worship the prince of peace, not pre-emptive war..." Hmmmm.... I wonder why Hume would leave that part out?