It’s all about the tribe

Maybe it’s because it’s February (see previous rant), or because I’ve had the flu, or because we lost one of the 20th century’s great journalistic wits when Molly Ivins went on ahead to someplace not at all like Texas, but I haven’t been able to work up much interest in the trial of Scooter Libby.

First, it’s not about whether Libby leaked the name of a working undercover CIA operative to journalists – that would be a felony, and it’s not in dispute. He’s on trial for lying about leaking. The columnist who actually published the leak, Robert Novak, has not been charged with a crime, while New York Times reporter Judith Miller, who never wrote about it, did a couple of months in the poky rather than give up her source – Libby. Time magazine’s Matthew Cooper turned over his notes instead of going to jail.

The prosecution promised we’d hear about how it was all about keeping Karl Rove’s “neck out of the meatgrinder,” as Libby’s boss, Vice President Dock Cheney, put it, but no. It will go to the jury next week with nothing, nada, not even Libby himself on the stand.

In his place, we have a sorry parade of highly paid  members of the Washington press corps, whose stock in trade is gossip, innuendo and informational quid-pro-quo – except for the highly paid part, my tribe.

We now know about Bob Woodward getting paid handsomely by the Washington Post to write books and, well, be Bob Woodward, rather than  a contributing member of the editorial staff. We know Cheney’s office didn’t have a ready list of willing ears to leak into because reporters had quit calling. And we know Miller’s editor didn’t always listen to her rants.

Just another day at the office.

Out in San Francisco, however, a couple of news-related developments could change the way we all do bidness, as Molly would say. First, the San Francisco Chronicle reporters who wrote about the BALCO sports steroid scandal are not going to jail, now that the Colorado-based attorney for the defense fessed up to providing them grand jury transcripts – another possible felony.

He could face disbarment, which might make leakers outside the White House think twice about spilling the beans, which will leave a lot of the tribe scrambling for sources.

And exactly who gets to be a member of the tribe could be determined by the fate of young blogger Josh Wolf, who has set the record for longest jail time ever on a civil contempt charge for not turning over to federal law enforcement videotapes of a G8 Summit protest in April.

It’s all about whether an activist can step out of that role and claim journalistic privilege just by writing about an event, and if a blog is a legitimate news venue. Stay tuned.

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