PressEthic

This last section of Maria Newman’s New York Times article “Washington Post’s Woodward Apologizes for Lapse on Leak” struck me as interesting. She writes:

In the last few months, Mr. Woodward has appeared on several television and radio shows to discuss the ongoing investigation about Ms. Wilson.

In the interview on "Larry King Live" Mr. Woodward had said, "I don't see an underlying crime here."

He said on the same show that he did not believe the conversations between administration officials and reporters about Ms. Wilson were part of "somebody launching a smear campaign."

"I'm quite confident we're going to find out that it started kind of as gossip, as chatter, and that somebody learned that Joe Wilson's wife had worked at the CIA and helped him get this job going to Niger to see if there was an Iraq/Niger uranium deal," he said. "There's a lot of innocent actions in all of this."

Here’s an angle I haven’t heard before, and purported by one of the most knowledgeable reporters in Washington, no less. Of course, he does have a vested interest in hoping the whole affair blows over, but I still think his opinion is worth mentioning before the very last paragraphs of a 1,400 word article. Was Plame’s identity really a secret? That seems like a legitimate question.

Newman mentions earlier:

In his statement, Mr. Woodward said he told the prosecutor that the administration official had casually talked about Ms. Wilson, and that Mr. Woodward did not believe that the information was sensitive or classified.

I’d like to hear more about Woodward’s It’s-not-that-big-of-a-deal Theory. Unfortunately, Newman seems more interested in mentioning how this investigation has, “placed a spotlight on how administration officials deal with their critics, and also on their relationships with reporters.” True, no doubt, but I wish she would also dig a little bit deeper into Woodward’s revelation.