Michael Kinsley: Right Principle, Wrong Context

Post
Sunday, July 10, 2005; B07

When Robert D. Novak first reported that people in the Bush White House had identified Valerie Plame as an undercover CIA operative, the New York Times reacted with high dudgeon. Plame is married to Joseph Wilson, a former State Department official who went to Niger in search of evidence of Iraq's effort to assemble weapons of mass destruction. He then wrote (in the Times) that he couldn't find much, and outing Wilson's wife appeared to be the Bush administration's revenge.

The New York Times editorialized: "If someone at the White House . . . revealed the name of a CIA operative to . . . stifle dissent over Iraq policy, that in itself would be a serious assault on free speech and an egregious abuse of power." It called Bush's "blanket denial" a "cover-up." It looks as if what the Times found so alarming is exactly what happened. The cover-up is crumbling. Wrongdoers may be exposed and punished. All no thanks to the New York Times.