Eat The Press

We Won't Get Fooled Again

Posted Tuesday August 29, 2006 at 05:53 PM

Byron York, reporter/pundit/general flack for the White House for the National Review, took reporters Michael Isikoff and David Corn to task today, charging that for their new book on the Plame case, they didn't contact anyone from the Rove or Libby teams.

York's source for this allegation? The Rove and Libby teams, of course.

Now, this seems to ring a bell: where have I heard about Rove and Libby, or maybe a spokesman for Rove and Libby, denying, Scout's Honor, that they had ever talked to reporters?

Oh, that's right:

Q Scott, earlier this week you told us that neither Karl Rove, Elliot Abrams nor Lewis Libby disclosed any classified information with regard to the leak. I wondered if you could tell us more specifically whether any of them told any reporter that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA?

MR. McCLELLAN: Those individuals -- I talked -- I spoke with those individuals, as I pointed out, and those individuals assured me they were not involved in this. And that's where it stands.

Q So none of them told any reporter that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA?

MR. McCLELLAN: They assured me that they were not involved in this.

And what do you know? Turns out York's sources may not have been telling the truth; shortly after the article was posted, he appended an "author's note" with an email from Isikoff, who wrote that he had, in fact, contacted the Rove and Libby teams.

You know, Byron -- There's an old saying in Tennessee (I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee) that says, fool me once, shame on -- shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again.

- Alex Koppelman

(Originally posted at Dfiremedia.org.)