Novak needs to roll...

In a story that has gone from ethically blasphemous to absurd to downright horrifying, the case of the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame, and the potential incarceration of two journalists who, incidentally, were not the ones who outed Plame in the first place, has got to be yet another sign of either the long, protracted downfall of the American empire, or the impending arrival of the apocalypse.

 

As a journalist, one of the first lessons you learn is: if you're going to use an anonymous source, you must be willing to either go to jail to protect that source or change professions. Rat out a source and you might as well walk around with an "I'll fuck you over, don't talk to me" sandwichboard 'round your neck.

 

Unless, that is, you're Bob Novak, the fuckwit blowhard who actually blew Plame's cover, and has, so far, walked free. Why is that? Is it possible he ratted out his source? Gee, but, you say, that would be career suicide, mais non?

 

Perhaps. But maybe the rules are changing and like everything else in this fine nation -- I'm thinking about municipalities kicking people out of their homes for fat tax coffers and warmongers making millions on the continual US-led war in the Middle East -- money is God.

 

And, Novak, who should, incidentally, be strung up and bludgeoned with reporters notebooks and ballpoint pens after admitting to CNN he is, plainly put, scum:

 

CNN: In general, though, you believe in the principle of keeping the identity secret of confidential sources. Have you ever revealed the identity of one of your confidential sources?

NOVAK: Well, people know -- who have read my column know there have been special case[s] where I have. But the question of being coerced to by the government and being put in prison is, I think, something that should be protected by act of Congress.

So, Ratvak claims that, once everything is said and done, he'll write about what happened and everyone will understand.

Sure. Unless it's something short of him not willing to admit that he got down on his fat little hands and knees to suck off Shrub, he deserves a byline as much as Jayson Blair.... or Monica Lewinsky.

Of course, the larger travesty in all this is the fact that Time bent over and took it in the ass once the threat of big fines came their way. Nice. It's all well and good to own a news outlet, which Time's owners (and every over media owner, small and monolithic) use to spew their side of things, skew their side of things and make you buckets of money, cutting reporters, salaries and access to the very things that make reporting possible like databases and training.

But the second the bottom line is in jeopoardy, they turn and run like the little pansies they are.

The death rattle of traditional paper-based news has been around for a while, let's hope it kills useless drivel like Time and CNN off once and for all. Especially before there's another goddamned runaway bride, killer shark or natural disaster... augh!