Miner's "Hot Type"

Except for the entertainment listings, I'm usually pretty slow to get around to each edition of the Chicago Reader. I happened to look at this week's more quickly, so I'm able to recommend Michael Miner's "Hot Type" column while it's still timely. Miner's column of press criticism is always worth reading, something I consistently do, even if the issue it's in is weeks or sometimes months old.

This week he takes a look at the whole Rove-Plame thing and takes special care to point out many of the contradictions and ironies. His sense is that journalists support Fitzgerald's investigation into the Bush White House but are not happy that another journalist is in jail as a result. He also notes what Ron pointed out earlier this week in a comment on another post, that we're glad the investigation seems to be moving forward, even if it is because Matt Cooper and Time magazine gave up their sources. But Miner's most salient point addresses how the press has--or hasn't--been doing its job:

The press has been second-guessing its heavy reliance on anonymous sources for some time now, and Miller is the ultimate example of how far out of hand things have gotten: going to jail for someone she should be helping send to jail. Another [point commentators are making] is that the Bush administration needs to be turned inside out. That's supposed to be journalism's job, but Fitzgerald's been doing journalism's work for it, charging it one reporter's freedom for the favor.

If Fitzgerald were the best friend journalism ever had, he might have decided to do exactly what he's done. He's angered it, shamed it, and awakened it. Plenty of newspaper readers must wonder why other reporters--at the Times or anyplace else--didn't do the work of reporters and find out who was feeding the media information about Valerie Plame. If they had, they could have saved Fitzgerald time and Miller anguish. Surely Miller couldn't promise any silence but her own.

It seems the White House press corps has actually started taking their press briefings more seriously, but we still haven't seen any indication that they're digging up their own stories rather than waiting for Scott McClellan or various anonymous administration sources to spoon feed them information. Still, I guess we should be grateful that we've seen a change for the better at all.