Novel Strategy Pits Journalists Against Source

[rodeodance]

Also says that Miller "plays a relatively small part in the indictment", while Russert and Cooper "are the main witnesses"

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/29/politics/29media.html?hp&ex=1130644800&en=1642ab33c1c6ad5d&ei=5094&partner=homepage

October 29, 2005
The News Media
Novel Strategy Pits Journalists Against Source
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE and ADAM LIPTAK

In pressing his indictment of I. Lewis Libby Jr., the special prosecutor is pitting three prominent journalists against their former source, a strategy that experts in law and journalism say has rarely been used or tested.

It is all but unheard of for reporters to turn publicly on their sources or for prosecutors to succeed in conscripting members of a profession that prizes its independence.

Yet Mr. Libby's trial on perjury and obstruction charges will largely turn on whether jurors are more inclined to believe a government official who played a critical role in devising the justifications for the Iraq war or members of a profession whose own credibility has been under assault.

"We don't have much of a track record," said Jeffrey H. Smith, a former general counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency, "because journalists so rarely testify.".....

[Neil Lisst]

1. TRIANGULATION.

The importance of getting Judas Miller to turn on Libby cannot be overstated. Because she was "on the team" with Libby, her testimony will cement that of Russert and Cooper.

Otherwise, it would be the contest you suggest. If all three testify against Libby, he's toast.

[bemildred]

2. Calling these media whores progessional journalists is too kind.

The NYT continues it's campaign to rehabilitate its soiled image.