I have to echo what Atrios says here:
Tim Russert: We were subpoenaed at NBC, and myself, in May of 2004. We fought the subpoena and lost.On Aug. 7, I sat down with the special counsel, under oath, not before the grand jury, and was asked if I was a recipient of the leak. The answer was no. I was asked whether I knew Valerie Plame's name and where she worked and whether she was a CIA operative. And the answer was no. That was the extent of it. This is all confirmed on page 7 of the published indictment.
Mr. Libby had called NBC and me, as bureau chief, in July, not to leak information, but to complain about something he had seen on a cable television program. That was the extent of it.
There you are. Just because some important person calls a journalist on the phone does not mean that the important person is a source or that the journalist has promised them confidentiality. Similarly, just because journalist and important person are chatting at the bar, at a dinner party, or anywhere else does not mean that the important person is a source that the journalist has promised confidentiality.
Indeed, it turns out that subpeona Russert and NBC fought against required him to, of all things, reveal to the Grand Jury that Libby had called to complain about an MSNBC program. What? The NBC Customer Care Hotline is strictly confidential now? I guess it's good to know that if I call to complain that The West Wing makes absolutely no sense these days, my concerns will not be revealed without NBC putting up a fight.
So, Atrios is right that we've kind of gone through the looking glass on what "source confidentiality" means (and "anonymous sourcing," too, for that matter). All conversations in Washington are considered absolutely confidential, no matter how innocuous or trivial, and all sources are to be considered anonymous. But Li'l Russ didn't just sin by hiding information that shouldn't have been considered confidential or germane to any kind of journalist-source relationship, his attempt to hide this information essentially helped keep confidential the fact that Libby was lying through his teeth about how he learned of the status of "Wilson's wife." There is no reason for Russert to keep his MSNBC quality control conversation unless he felt a responsibility to not out Libby as a liar -- to keep confidential the implied true nature of his conversations with other reporters.
The Washington press corps has gone native, and unfortunately, no one who's particularly concerned is in any position to bring them back.
Posted by Aaron S. Veenstra ::: 2005:10:29:15:28