Matthews, Mitchell, O'Beirne Plame misinformation triple-team

[G_j]

http://mediamatters.org/items/200510140009

Matthews, Mitchell, and O'Beirne combined for Plame misinformation triple-team

On the October 13 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell, National Review Washington editor Kate O'Beirne, and host Chris Matthews presented false and misleading statements concerning the investigation into the alleged outing of former CIA agent Valerie Plame. Mitchell wrongly asserted that Plame's husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, claimed that Vice President Dick Cheney "dispatched" him to Niger in 2002 to investigate the alleged sale of yellowcake uranium to Iraq. Matthews stated as fact the disputed claim that Plame "suggested her husband for the mission" to Niger. And O'Beirne confused two statutes that may have been violated when Plame's identity was leaked to the press -- the 1917 Espionage Act and the 1982 Intelligence Identities Protection Act -- and wrongly attacked Wilson's credibility by claiming he was "o expert in weapons of mass destruction."

Mitchell, claiming she wanted to "clear something up," stated that "here had been inaccurate reporting -- some of it came from Wilson's mouth himself -- that he was dispatched by the vice president." Wilson, however, never claimed that Cheney or Cheney's office sent him to Niger. As Media Matters for America has noted, Wilson -- in his July 6, 2003, New York Times op-ed and in numerous televised appearances -- claimed he was sent to Niger by the CIA to answer questions from Cheney's office regarding the purported sale of uranium to Iraq. The false claim that Wilson stated or implied that Cheney sent him to Niger (literally a Republican National Committee talking point) is significant to the controversy surrounding the White House's alleged outing of Plame. In an attempt to justify the purported leaking of Plame's identity to the press, the White House claimed that it had a legitimate interest in setting the record straight by disclosing that Plame, not Cheney, was actually responsible for Wilson's being sent to Niger.

Responding to Mitchell's remarks, Matthews commented that "f course Valerie Plame suggested her husband for the mission." But what Matthews presented as fact is a matter very much in dispute. Unnamed intelligence officials have been quoted in the press claiming that the CIA -- not Plame -- selected Wilson for the mission. Also, CIA officials disputed the accuracy of a State Department intelligence memo that reportedly indicates that Plame "suggested" Wilson's name for the trip. Moreover, the Senate Intelligence Committee did not officially conclude that Plame suggested the trip in its 2004 "Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community's Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq."

..more..

[thinkingwoman]

1. they're spitting in the wind

nobody watches that show except for political junkies (like all of us :hi: ). They won't convine anyone with their blatherings...not even themselves.

[G_j]

3. I agree

I think it is rather pitiful.

[AX10]

4. I agree. Tweets gets 280000 per night.

That's not much at all.

[H2O Man]

6. Key point!

Remember that to communicate with another person, you have to speak the language they speak. If a person speaks Chinese, and you approach him speaking French, there is not going to be communication. So I think we can agree that Matthews has to speak in a different tongue to get his message across on Hardball, than he would if he were trying to get the same point across on DU.

Most of mainstream America believes -- incorrectly -- that Plame was a large part of the reason that Wilson was selected by CI to go to Niger. Matthews cannot say, "No, folks, this is complicated, but as an ambassador, Wilson did work for the agency most of his career." That is something Wilson is not at liberty to make public, and Matthews isn't going to. The average person wouldn't "get it," and worse, they would get stuck on that point. And that's NOT the point.

So if Matthews breezes over it, rather than allowing a republican guest to derail the conversation, by saying, "Yes, but still ..." that should not be viewed as absolute proof that Chris endorses the republican view, only that he is trying to get past it to focus on the more important issues at hand.

I do have to disagree with his saying that what the White House did was simply respond to a critic. In a way, yes, obviously they did. But they did not respond by debating the value of the forged documents; rather, they used classified information to AT VERY LEAST cover a lie they were invested in.

[thinkingwoman]

10. set and match

I was flippant and quick, on my way back to another forum.

Thank you for saying what I should have!

I do still think, however, that for the most part his cause is lost because the many pundits and political junkies watching are hardened into their positions. I think only the indictments and trials will wake some of them up.

Novakula, of course, is unwakeable. The undead live. ;-)

[H2O Man]

11. It's a strange circumstance.

At least four journalists know a heck of a lot more about this case than they are saying. It is being said that Miller may have a long article in the Sunday Times.

[thinkingwoman]

13. Well she's overdue

I'm interested in hearing what she has to say.

I feel for journalists who know but feel they cannot say. There are times when deciding not to say is legitimate and times when it is not. But I've been there and I remember that feeling--it sticks in the gut for a long time after the situation is resolved.

[G_j]

14. way back at the beginning of this

I am pretty sure I remember Helen Thomas saying (I think on Democracy Now!) that she thought most of the WH press people knew who the 'leaker' was.

[savemefromdumbya]

2. no wonder there is low moral in the intelligence services

this government breached national security and our media people are ridiculing it

[ShockediSay]

5. Contact for Hardball? Matthews?

email address? fax number? phone number? anything?

[doni_georgia]

8. [email protected]

[oasis]

7. Deliberate deception. Not surprising for any of that trio. (eom)

[Octafish]

9. Sounds like they were fed the same info as Steno Judy.

The difference being they work for GE and broadcast the monkey house spin. One thing they have in common is they all deserve to be outted for the traitors they are -- "journalists" who back the traitors who reduced the national security by outting a NOC and her network involved in reducing nuclear proliferation. They also are on the traitors' side because they helped perpetuate the lie that Iraq had something to do with 9-11.

Thanks for the info G_j! More evidence against these turds of the BFEE.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

12. I watched this and was actually yelling at the tv. eom