Journalistic Curiosity Is in Short Supply in the Plame Scandal

It's a safe bet that the kind of story that Washington journalists cover least well is one in which they play a starring role. That helps explain why the reporting in the Valerie Plame scandal has been so myopic and limited, leaving big and obvious holes in the public record. What's more, the audience is left with the suspicion that many journalists "reporting" on the scandal know more of the truth than they're telling their readers and viewers.

Now the blogging community is stepping forward to fill in some of the gaps in the Beltway coverage. Arianna Huffington, for instance, has achieved respectful notice for a possible solution to the mystery of why New York Times national security reporter Judith Miller is serving jail time in the Plame case despite the fact that she never wrote anything about it. What if Ms. Miller might have actually been the source of the original leak about Ms. Plame's CIA employment? If true, that may mean she is protecting a high-level confidante in the State Department or CIA, rather than someone in the White House.

Ms. Huffington seems to have turned up possible evidence that Ms. Miller is negotiating a book deal on her jail cell experience. When she e-mailed Robert Bennett, Ms. Miller's lawyer, about the speculation, Mr. Bennett responded by asking: "Where did you get this info?" When Ms. Huffington said it came from "publishing sources" -- Mr. Bennett curtly wrote back "No comment."

Isn't it about time that the Beltway media turn ever so slightly away from their obsession with Karl Rove and ask a few questions about journalists involved in the Plame story who are not named Robert Novak?