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Novak on Meet the Press: Retract and Spin


Crooks and Liars has the video of Bob Novak's appearance on Meet the Press this morning. Christy at Firedoglake provides her view.

Shorter version: Novak now claims he made a mistake when he told Newsday one week after his infamous column in which he outed Valerie Plame that his primary source gave him Valerie Plame Wilson's name.

Novak, in an interview, said his sources had come to him with the information. "I didn't dig it out, it was given to me," he said. "They thought it was significant, they gave me the name and I used it." [my emphasis]

Memories weaken upon the passage of time, they become comingled with post-event information --things the person experiencing the event later hears and reads about the case -- so that often it is no longer possible to distinguish between their original memory of the event and the blended memory that is created by what they heard, observed or later learned from others. Novak's memory is undoubtedly a mish-mosh now, but it wasn't one week after the event.

I'm going with what Novak said then: his primary source, who is no partisan gunslinger, not only told him Joseph Wilson's wife had a role in sending him to Niger but supplied her name.

Here's one post from last week on Novak Then vs. Novak Now.

Update: Editor and Publisher has the majority of the transcript.

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    Re: Novak on Meet the Press: Retract and Spin (none / 0) (#1)
    by squeaky on Sun Jul 16, 2006 at 10:59:16 AM EST
    .... often it is no longer possible to distinguish between their original memory of the event and the blended memory that is created by what they heard, observed or later learned from others. Novak's memory is undoubtedly a mish-mosh now, but it wasn't one week after the event.
    TL you are so kind.

    Re: Novak on Meet the Press: Retract and Spin (none / 0) (#2)
    by squeaky on Sun Jul 16, 2006 at 11:51:32 AM EST
    Walter Pincus on journalistic courage: "Journalistic courage should include the refusal to publish in a newspaper or carry on a TV or radio news show any statements made by the President or any other government official that are designed solely as a public relations tool, offering no new or valuable information to the public."
    Hear that Mr. NovakJosh Marshall

    Re: Novak on Meet the Press: Retract and Spin (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sun Jul 16, 2006 at 08:01:49 PM EST
    Memories weaken upon the passage of time . . . . . . but the disinclination of conservatives to take responsibility for their own actions never wavers. Squeaky's right, you're way charitable here. The kicker for me was when Novak claimed that he didn't believe Ms. Plame was an undercover agent. Right, Bob. It's a conspiracy. All those bad liberals--including that dirty hippie, Joe Wilson--made it up, just to mess with you. Gosh, what was Jon Stewart's nickname for him?

    Re: Novak on Meet the Press: Retract and Spin (none / 0) (#4)
    by squeaky on Sun Jul 16, 2006 at 10:14:45 PM EST
    empty wheel has a nice dissection of Novak's spin. She starts off with a stunningly accurate visual analogy that touches on the sublime:
    You've got a man whose charisma derives from his dark creepiness fighting for press attention against a classic American blonde beauty. (I keep seeing visions of the Hunchback of Notre Dame, but at least Quasimodo was a sympathetic character.)
    empty wheel

    Re: Novak on Meet the Press: Retract and Spin (none / 0) (#5)
    by Che's Lounge on Sun Jul 16, 2006 at 11:10:42 PM EST
    I just caught the delayed version by chance. He's lying to protect the administration. Dear Mr. Fitzgerald, It's been almost 3 years. The public has the right to know what is happening with this case. We'll all BE oil by the time you finish. Even CA criminal cases don't take this long. Make a statement of SOME kind, either ending the investigation or state whether it's continuing and tell us why, as best you can. There is no excuse for this.