Novak warned before show that Plame case would be discussed [View All]

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/jay-rosen/why-robert-novak-stormed-_5233.html

Why Robert Novak Stormed Off the Set

Jay Rosen, 08.06.2005

Thursday afternoon Robert Novak stormed off the set of CNN's "Inside Politics" and got himself suspended. He also eluded questions about the Valerie Plame case that were going to be asked by a CNN colleague, anchor Ed Henry, who said he warned Novak before the show began that he would be raising the matter. (The Transcript(http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0508/04/ip.01.html). The video(http://mediamatters.org/items/200508040004).)

Why did it go down Thursday? Because on Monday, Aug. 1, Novak violated the terms of a professional stand-off that had been keeping him just this side of legitimate in the eyes of his colleagues in Washington journalism. He had previously said that, on the advice of his lawyer, he couldn't talk about the case, or answer any questions interviewers might put to him, until the prosecution had run its course.

But then he went ahead and talked about the case in Monday's Chicago Sun-Times column ("Ex-CIA official's remark is wrong") in which he disputed the account given by Bill Harlow, the official spokesman at the CIA whom Novak called for more information about Valerie Plame.

Novak, in order to counter the suggestion that he had been properly warned but went ahead anyway -- which he said would be "inexcusable for any journalist and particularly a veteran of 48 years in Washington" -- decided to take up his pen. Ladies and gentlemen, he said, people have got to know whether their columnist is a crook. Or a jerk. Or a tool. Did I go ahead with the name of a CIA covert operative despite being warned? No, I did not.