Oliphant: "What has happened to our business?"
Tom Oliphant on with Imus yesterday, really took a shot at his industry: (loose transcript)
Imus: "The Woodward thing has kinda disappeared-isn't it?" Tom: "Yes, but now we have another one."
Imus: What's this? Tom: "Now we have the reporter from TIME magazine-(Viveca) who has gone on leave-
Imus: "Oh,, tell me about this."
Tom: "Yes, what is the matter with my business? I mean, you shouldn't ask me that question. I mean this is the- every. every other week it seems there's another reporter who on the one hand is playing insider footsie with participants in this scandal and then not telling either the readers, the customers, or the editors about what you've done and it just mystifies me. Umm-except for the observation that some in, in my business really do seem to relish this role or this fictitious role of insider-ahhh-and, and in the process we forget what we're supposed to do-write what people say in our notebook-and type it up and give it to the boss."
Download 
Download Tom gets it and is very frustrated at how members of the press have been so deeply involved in the Valerie Plame case. For anyone to still defend Viveca Novak over leaking information to her friend-Rove's attorney-is ludicrous.
What does Digby have to say:
" Although Corn expends a great deal of energy lighting up the straw man, I haven't seen anyone accusing her of being a right wing operative. It's not her politics that are at issue. It's her ethics. "Pushing back" shouldn't include exposing her colleague Matt Cooper's source to a third party-- Lawrence O'Donnell knew and kept it secret for months because he didn't want to be subpoenaed and God knows how many other people knew it and passed it on to other privileged insiders or kept it to themselves for selfish reasons. Can't reporters like Corn understand why we poor hapless rubes out here in the hinterlands (not to mention the Justice department) find their shrieking for the last year and half about the sanctity of the confidential source just a little bit self-serving? "...read on"
