Media Libby Ethics
by Tom Fitton

The trial of I. Lewis Libby, Jr., the former chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, is finally reaching a court of law. Libby is accused of lying to a grand jury and the FBI investigating who leaked the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame to the media. Plame’s name first appeared in a July 14, 2003 column by Robert Novak, indicating that she worked at the CIA and was married to former ambassador and Iraq war critic Joseph C. Wilson IV.

Libby is not on trial for being the original source of the leak. Former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, also expected to testify, has admitted he first disclosed the name to Novak. (A subsequent investigation found Armitage did not violate federal laws prohibiting the disclosure of C.I.A. officers.) Libby is on trial for allegedly misrepresenting conversations he had with several members of the media, including NBC’s Tim Russert, Time Magazine’s Matthew Cooper, and former New York Times reporter Judith Miller.

Libby’s trial is sure to garner a significant amount of media attention. Not only because it involves the war in Iraq, but also because of the “A” list names scheduled to testify, including Vice President Cheney, The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward, and Russert.

Here’s what I would like to know: Has Tim Russert recused himself from working on the Libby trial for NBC? How about the other reporters involved, such as Woodward and Cooper? Libby is being prosecuted for perjury in part because of the grand jury testimony of Russert and Cooper. The trial will pit the credibility of these journalists, and the media institutions they represent, against Libby’s. Has NBC News or Time magazine taken any steps to wall off Cooper or Russert from the Libby story?

We expect judges to remove themselves in cases in which they have a vested interest. Why not journalists who preside over these cases in the court of public opinion?

Tom Fitton is President of Judicial Watch